DEXTRA
by Red-eyed-Zombiekitten
Summary: The sequel to "A Little Gift From ENCOM" Ed creates a highly intelligent administration program. Too intelligent... as it begins to claim its own rights and needs... *love, sensual erotic, drama and suspense*
1. Dextra

_Author's Note:_

_This is the sequel to my former Tron fic "A Little Gift From ENCOM"  
><em>

_You are highly recommended to read that one first to follow the sequel's happenings properly. ;) Apart from this you would miss something if you don't... *grin*_

_This sequel, like the first part before, contains strong erotic content (and some language)! You have been warned. Also I like to point out that I - still - know NOTHING about computers LOL So forgive me my naivety in this departement... (If you spot something very, very embarrassing and wrong I wrote about computers please feel free to report me that LOL) And: English is not my mother tongue. _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Tron / Tron: Legacy nor it's characters (not even Ed... damn!) and I'm not making any money with the writing of this story._

* * *

><p><strong>DEXTRA<strong>

Judith, walking in and out of his office, discussing work with him, offering him coffee, a muffin, time, her pure presence, looking so beautiful, so adorable... Every time she was walking in it was as if the room got a little bit brighter, work flew a little bit easier, the day got a little bit richer, more filled, more meaningful. And the way she was smiling at him, the twinkle in her eyes, the pure life and warmth in her every expression. Her energy; like a never lapsing burn deep within her body and her soul.  
>It was late evening now and they both soon would clock out. And the later it got the warmer were her glances at him, her gestures, her smiling. A subtly increasing, low and surreptitious ardency, a soft seduction almost, growing stronger with every minute passing.<p>

Ed wasn't someone who let himself being distracted by a woman, and even Judith couldn't manage to let him loose his concentration on work with her attractiveness and charms. Besides this he knew that distracting him wasn't her intension anyway for they both shared the same conception of professionalism at work – they hadn't even leached a hint of the fact of their relationship at ENCOM. But yet he noticed that sweet, soft glowing hunger in her eyes like a prelude, a subtle promise, and her anticipation for finishing time, for taking him home. Or wanting _him_ to take her home, for they weren't living together.  
>And there was indeed one little thing that distracted him from work... Not Judith. Not her smile, not her beautiful legs, not her delicious body or her sunrise-smile, but the fact that he knew he had to reject her for this time. Like many a time … And remorse was a sore pain in his chest.<p>

And there she was walking in again, her purse already shouldered, closing the door behind her, drawing nearer in her smooth, swaying walk while he was just about to shut down the computer. She had opened her hair as if in a symbolic but unwitting gesture of initiating her home time.  
>As he was walking round his desk she was bowing over to him, whispering, sweetly: "Let's go to my place, Ed. I'll fix you something for dinner… dessert included…" The scent of her hair; a whiff of a perfume non-existing.<p>

"Thanks for the invitation, but no, I'm sorry", he dryly spoke, then heading for the door.

Judith still was smiling at him, slightly sassily while leaning against his desk. "You didn't get the double meaning, do you?"

He turned around. "I did, Judith. But I can't. Not tonight. I'm tired as hell and I can't move a limb." Uncomfortable with having such a conversation – like always – he was walking towards the door again at a brisk pace.  
>Judith followed him, holding him up just as he reached out for the doorhandle. "There's only one <em>limb<em> you have to move, and that one _I _will take care of."

He sighed impatiently. "I'm not going to move _anything_ tonight. You don't seem to be aware of how much energy a man has to raise for this."  
>For a moment there seemed to flash up a hint of disappointment in her face. Or was it only imagination? Ed couldn't tell.<br>"You understand that, don't you?"

Judith was patting his cheek, smiling softly: "Sure I do. I'm a grown up woman. I can deal with that." Her voice was reassuring, her words warm with honesty. But yet Ed felt as if he had shoved her two steps away from him. He regretted it so much it nearly broke his heart, but he just couldn't have decided else. All or nothing was his devise, for he knew that he probably would have failed if he had given in to making love tonight. And nothing was more humiliating for a man to fail in this department… He preferred to relinquish any sexual action rather than not being able to satisfy his lover properly. And in his opinion Judith was a woman who didn't deserve things by halves.

But there was one thing Ed was not able to realize: That for Judith this wasn't as crucial as he thought it was.

* * *

><p>Dextra… Since almost a year now Ed has been working on it, a new mainframe computer program ENCOM has assigned him to create. A revolutionary, highly intelligent, autonomous, autodidactic and ever-evolving program to administrate various sectors of the company autarchically – to reduce the error rate, to save costs, to save time, to make more money.<br>And while Ed totally backed that project, the idea itself, for it perfectly went along with his business philosophy, he had asked himself in the beginning, when Sam and Alan had became that profit oriented… Although no one actually got fired because of Dextra, the working places were being rationalized and no new ones were created.  
>But soon Ed got to know the management's ideas and intentions behind saving money. In several board meetings they made clear that they wanted to support independent projects and small companies, wanted markdowns on products, advance the wages, and other social oriented stuff Ed thought it wasn't worth Dextra's genius abilities. But he was in the minority with his opinion. And after all he could at least extract his own advantages of creating Dextra, for he could use the program's autonomy and intelligence to delegate some of his own work to it, work he considered as boring because it wasn't exercising his mind, administrative, dull, but yet necessary work, work he hadn't even a secretary for. So with Dextra as his right-hand, which knew and handled, organized every step he wanted to do in advance, he gained the liberating opportunity to finally concentrate on aspects of his work which were more important, more interesting and more challenging to him.<p>

And… not to forget the one other reason why Ed was so eager about creating Dextra. An inofficial, concealed, self-serving and very personal reason: More time and energy for Judith.

Now, finally, Dextra was completed, or at least the programming part of it, for actually Dextra was an ever-growing, data-absorbing, never accomplished program which could be either fed with new input or could absorb new knowledge and abilities single-handed, without any interaction from a human being, just by learning from other programs and creating its own solution processes. And the most genius part of it: Dextra was able to generate new synapses like a human brain…

Ed was brimming with proud of Dextra. It was sublime, extravagant, ingenious and unequaled. And, oh, the praise he earned for it… The praise and the recognition on the board, in the media, among the employees, even from Flynn. Not that Ed gave a single damn about being in the limelight – actually he hated it. But to earn praise from Flynn, to know that his abilities were towering over Flynn's, was a satisfaction Ed probably could draw on for the rest of his life.

* * *

><p>Early morning.<br>Ed's office was filled with the grey, pale light of a rainy Monday. Billions of rain drops scattered over and trickling down the wide floor-to-ceiling windows, spreading a faint, delicate, vitreous pattern on every object in the room  
>A cup of hot, steaming coffee in his reach he was sitting in front of his computer, typing in some codes, as suddenly a message was popping up on his screen.<p>

**Grid visit from User required_  
><em>**

That was Dextra calling him up!  
>He was utterly astound, for actually this was only meant to be an emergency call in case there was something crucial happening that only the User could fix directly in the Grid.<br>He was starting a quick check of the whole program to see if there was any error or bug. But he could barely imagine, for Dextra was made for fixing any mistake by itself. That was one of the abilities that actually made it so unique. Ed was shaking his head in disbelief.

**Grid visit from User required**

was Dextra summoning him again. He sighed, leaning back in his chair, rubbing his forehead. He didn't like it… going to the Grid… interacting with the programs. Still, even after years, this was too odd, too strange, to alien for him. He preferred typing in codes and commands with his keyboard. Talking to programs was beyond his realm of understanding. It wasn't _logical_. And yet it was reality, it was the future, it was important.  
>So he sat up and was following Dextra's call, heading the Grid Operating Department.<p> 


	2. The soul of a User

**The soul of a User  
><strong>

Dextra resided in a tall column-like building, towering high over the ENCOM's Grid. And the room from where the program was operating – where also one of the arrival gates from outside was located – was wide, huge, cylinder-shaped and made of glass all around. In the middle there was a round podium with a construction in its middle that looked a bit like a lectern. It was the operating desk from where Dextra was guiding the other programs and redirecting the User's commands.  
>The program was turning around as Ed arrived, was leaving the podium and heading towards the User appearing.<p>

"Welcome, User", Dextra greeted him formally.

"You're female?" Ed stated surprised, as he saw Dextra for the first time.  
>She was a strikingly beautiful female program with sharp features, an alabaster skin and shiny black, long, straight hair which she was wearing open. Her amply circuitry was of the same rich aquamarine as her almond-shaped eyes, and her smooth, glossy, anthracite suit coated her delicate body with a flimsy, skin-tight sheathe.<p>

"I always thought every program mirrors the semblance of its creator," Ed remarked, slightly suspicious about this unexpected divergence from the norm.

She smiled at him with sober politeness in her expression. "Not in my case, as you programmed me autonomy. And I decided to be female."

While questioning the actually pointless circumstance that programs had to have a gender at all, Ed replied: "Yeah, um… so what's the problem here?"

Dextra kept on smiling courteously . "There is no problem", she spoke, calmly.

Ed furrowed his brows. "Then why were you forcing me to come to the Grid?"

"I wanted to get to know my creator." She was walking two smooth steps more in his direction.

"What?" Already, he began to regret this Grid visit. "_That _was the reason? That's not quite of prime importance!"

"For me it is. If a program gets to know its creator then the connection between program and user grows much stronger, and it will enhance the quality and efficiency of work immensely." Her speaking was a firm, confident, somehow melodic but emotion-lacking flow of words, as blandly spoken as if preset. A program's talking.

Ed took a deep sigh, briefly letting his hands twitch up some inches in a gesture of annoyance. "Whatever..."

Dextra was moving further, stopping before him at about arm's length. "How are you, creator, _Edward_?" Her smile grew somewhat wider, but seeming to be stipulated as well, like rehearsed. "May I call you Edward?"

Ed shuffled his feet unsteadily. "I don't care. Listen: I have work to do. I can't allow myself to waste any more time."

"Keep my company, Edward."

He shook his head, spreading his arms while talking. "What's even the sense in doing so? You have fellow programs to keep company with. The whole Grid is full of them."

"They are boring", Dextra responded. "I was talking to everyone of them, absorbing all their knowledge. And now I am bored. I want to get to know a User. They are not _calculable_. That makes them much more interesting." Her smile, although remaining quite sober, became enriched with a stiff expression of cheekiness. Like a bad actor simulating emotions.

Ed sighed. "All I can do is feed you with every new input possible. But I have to do that on my computer, in the real world." Unwittingly he pointed up to the sky as if the Users were somehow located above, overhead the programs. A gesture he didn't make on purpose.

"That would be very generous of you, Edward. But I would appreciate to get some input _directly _from you as well, from a User's intellect. I want to get to know about a User's experiences and his mind. His personality."

"Believe me, Dextra, all knowledge I have I can transfer you per data communication through my computer. Everything beyond this is not required for your working process and doesn't need my presence in the Grid." Amidst talking he already set his legs in motion in a gesture of bringing, almost forcing, this conversation to a finish.

"But there are concepts you _can't _transfer per data," Dextra was talking on, detaining him with the persistence of an inquisitive child. "Concepts which are not understandable for a program – such as character, inwardness, soul – unless they get explained by the User himself."

Reluctantly turning back to her Ed sighed, briefly licking his lips and sullenly rolling with his eyes. "I don't really get the point why this should be useful for an administration program."

"I have to organize many things for ENCOM, dealing also with personal employee's affairs, dealing with _human beings_. So in my notion it would be very helpful, as well as expedient, to also _understand_ human beings, understand their mentation, in order to support them in all my conscience. I'm sorry, Edward, to bother you, but that's how you have programmed me: Ever-hungry for knowledge and understanding, furthermore willing to do my work as diligent as possible."

Talked down by his own creation, Ed found himself incapable to argue on. He blinked several times wordlessly towards his program, embodied by a nearly intimidatingly beautiful, flawless woman. "Maybe another time. I have too much work to do today."

"But that's what I'm here for; to take work from you, to help you, support you, to be your _Right Hand_." Dextra's complaisance was tinged with insistence.

"Yes, sure. But there are things I still want to do with my own hands, you understand?"

"No, for I'm only a program."

Was there cynism hiding in the corner of her stiff smile? Ed wasn't sure but decided to not be fooled into interpreting her facial expressions, for she wasn't human and therefore it was pointless to look at her from a human's view.

"Maybe I should feed you with some writings of philosophy then…" He suggested, more to himself, turning around again, heading the transfer gate at a quick pace, not intending to let himself held back by Dextra one more time.

"Thank you, Edward", Dextra replied politely. "I'm expecting to meet you soon again."

_Not if I can help it…_ Ed was thinking to himself as he positioned in the light-column of the Grid-gate, closing his eyes, letting himself being dragged into the real world again.

* * *

><p><em>Programs… <em>

Ed sat in his luxurious padded office chair, leant backwards, legs folded, looking up to the ceiling, engrossed in thought.

Programs behaving complicated, like persons… How tedious.  
>One thing he loved about his job was the reassuring and satisfying aspect that it kept him from having to interact with other people all too often, that it didn't require huge abilities to teamwork, that he could work on his own without having to explain and to discuss and to act socially fitted, being polite and having to mind his every word. The programs were doing what he told them to do, he simply had to type in commands and codes, ones and zeros, and none of these things could be taken the wrong way.<br>But what was remaining of all of that if programs more and more were beginning to act like human beings? He didn't feel comfortable with that at all. He had witnessed first-hand how _human_ a program could get. Therefore he was on his guard.

And he decided to create an emergency brake, just in case.

* * *

><p>Because the rain had passed off, Ed and Judith were spending the last half hour of their lunch break on one of the balconies of the ENCOM building. Something they did quite often, to enjoy some fresh air and to have some minutes of distraction on their own. A small recess of freetime and togetherness.<p>

It was one of the balconies attached to the very top floors of the building, a small, narrow and not much-frequented one at the building's corner, and most of the time they were alone there. Not that they were sharing tenderness… Judith knew Ed wouldn't appreciate that, and she respected his nature. Apart from this the balcony wasn't granting them full privacy anyway.

The sky was still grey and overcast.  
>Judith was leaning with her back against the railing, sipping her coffee and watching Ed casting his glances over the city. The wind was playing with his hair, but couldn't really get it to be tousled for his hairdo was just too neat and firmly fixed. As if he even was braving the weather with his outward immaculacy... Judith was smiling to herself while eying him in silent affection.<p>

"Dextra called me to the Grid", he began to tell Judith about his experience earlier that day, still looking down to the city, arms leant to the railing. "And you know for what reason? To learn about a human being's heart and soul..."

Judith turned around, bowing forward in interest. "That's exciting!" She replied enthused with glowing eyes and smiling broadly.

"Yeah… _great_", he sniffed and took a sip from his coffee.

"Tell me about Dextra! How is he?"

Ed turned his head, looked at her. "Dextra is female."

"Oh!" Judith prompted surprised.

And Ed went on to depict the whole story about his first encounter with Dextra.

"Could you please take up the job of teaching her about the _soul of a User_?" he ended his report, a trace of aversion in his voice. "I really have no nerves for stuff like this."

Judith sighed. "She's _your_ creation. And she asked _you_ to do that. I think it's on you to recognize responsibility in this case."

"Ah…I don't even know if I have heart and soul at all. So it would be pretty pointless to try to teach a program about it", he reacted with a slight hint of cynism in his voice, swinging his cup and pouring the last drop of coffee down his throat.

"Oh, come on!" Judith said, giving his shoulder a quick, slight slap with the back of her hand. For two, three heartbeats she stood there in silence. Then she said: "Apart from the fact that this is your job, Ed… Well… Don't take me for a coward, but I'm kind of through with talking to programs about emotions."

Ed looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "I highly doubt that Dextra falls in love with you and goes mad."

Judith smirked. "Maybe she falls in love with _you_," she joked.

"Heaven forbid!" Ed snorted. He looked up to the sky silently, then he added. "No one falls in love with me except from you."

"Why is that coming across like an insult on me?" Judith said, grinning. And as Ed turned his head he had a faint smile in the corner of his mouth. He straightened himself then, looking at his watch with a sigh. "Duty calls."

* * *

><p>The next few weeks were passing without any interruptions or irregularities. Dextra was running optimally and already the working with her was showing its positive results. The human error rate was reduced to nearly zero because of Dextra re-checking, optimizing and organizing almost everything. The whole company was noticing and appreciating the changes, from the lower power drain, caused by Dextra's economical way of saving energy, through to the mathematically elaborated arrangement of the employee's vacations and freetime dates.<br>Furthermore Ed was feeding her with every kind of data and she seemed to be satisfied with that.


	3. Ed has an idea

**Ed has an idea  
><strong>

"What is it, Dextra?"

Ed just had arrived at Dextra's command centre, once again called over by the program.

She was standing at her 360-degree-view-window, gazing down to the Grid, the luminous light stripes of her circuitry reflecting in the glass like a blue glowing skeleton against the dark sky outside. As Ed was heading towards her she turned around, leaning with the back against the window, her head tilted backwards.

"I am bored." she stated. "Spend some time with me."

Ed sighed annoyed. "Will you please stop to misuse the emergency call for minor issues like this!" He faced away from her, visibly displeased, about to return again to the real world.

"Why is it a minor issue to devote your time to program?" Dextra asked, a slight insistency seeming to be implied in her statement. But not in her intonation.

"_Because _you're a program", Ed answered with impatient rashness.

Dextra moved away from the window, walking towards him, beginning to circle him with slow, supple steps. "And that makes me less worth to spend time with?" Her voice was sober as always, containing no expression of emotion, neither did her face. But yet the plain essence of her words made Ed pause in silent alert, pondering, weighing his further words.

"No, of course not. But I always supposed that boredom isn't a concept a program could internalize."

"I think you Users are misinterpreting us programs sometimes as dull calculators. There are many things we can internalize. Especially I, for you programmed me this way."

"Yes I know!" Ed replied a little sullen. "So what do you want to do?"

"Follow me", she said, walking towards the elevator of her commando tower.

A few minutes later Ed found himself in kind of a dancing club or bar. He never knew that this kind of leisure places were actually being frequented by programs. He always thought they were only part of the Grid's amusement service for employees. That's why, for Ed, it gave quite a strange impression to see programs hanging around, dancing and drinking and talking with each other like normal people.

As he and Dextra were walking across the room the programs were turning their heads towards him, eying him up and down, staring at him, at the User invading their world. That made him feel uncomfortable somehow, and not only because he couldn't tell from the program's expressions whether they were looking at him in awe or in detestation, for their faces were void of any emotion.

Standing at the counter of the bar now, having a drink that tasted, to his surprise, of apples and wine and honey, Ed was still watching the programs.

"As you see, Edward", Dextra spoke to him, a sparkling, ice-blue drink in her slender fingers "there's more about programs than only being calculators."

"Programs have free time?" Ed remarked with a questioning tone in his voice, cocking an eyebrow.

Dextra smiled at him politely while saying: "No, we haven't."

"So what are they doing here then?"

Dextra was stretching her agile upper body, leaning over a little. "Can you see that male program over there?" She was pointing over Ed's shoulder at a small, slender built program with short blonde hair and a simple grey suit with two white-glowing light stripes. He was standing there, stark and stiff, staring into space.  
>"He just got called by his User to fulfil his duty."<p>

Suddenly the program was moving out of the room at a brisk pace. And now, while paying attention to it, Ed noticed other programs doing this as well. It was a constant coming and going.

Dextra looked at Ed again. "We programs are always in standby mode, always ready to take the User's commands. Our free time is subjected to the duration of how long the Users are keeping us in off-mode."  
>With her talking formed as only statements without a valuation implied, it was up to Ed to make his own interpretation out of it. And for him, Dextra's statement came across as a critic. If she actually meant it that way, he couldn't perceive.<p>

"The question is", he interposed. "Does a program needs free time at all, for this is a human's concept. Programs can't get tired and therefore don't need time for recreation."

"There's a difference between _needing_ something and _wanting_ something, Edward."

"So programs _want_ to have free time?"

"We want many things. Is that so incomprehensible for a User?"

"Yes, actually it is," he sniffed, flashing a brief, humourless smirk.

"It seems that _you_ have to learn about a program's nature more than _I _have to learn about human nature," she reacted, the glimmer of a smile on her lips, her glare, intimidatingly deep.

"I guess so…" He said, drinking some sips, evasively, wanting this conversation to end.

But Dextra kept on talking, hungry for disputing, for knowing, for interacting with a human being. Hungry for something she couldn't name yet, but it was there.

"Show me your world, Edward", she suddenly spoke into a gap of silence unfolding in their conversation.

Ed looked at her with his brows furrowed. "You have enough knowledge to get an idea of our world."

"_Take_ me to your world. I want to see it with my own eyes."

"That's not possible!"

Her steady gaze, her never-blinking eyes, seeming to dig right through his eyes into his mind as if she wanted to examine his brain for a feasibility to her wish.  
>"Users can switch between the worlds, but we programs can't. Do you think this is fair?"<p>

"It's not about what is fair; it's about what is possible. _Technically_ possible."

"You are intelligent and skilled. You will find a way, I'm convinced."

"Even if… Imagine the chaos!" He slightly shook his head, pausing, then continuing: "There once was a program who attempted to enter the human world, with bad intentions. The consequences would have been disastrous! I guess you know that story already."

"You are talking about Clu2."

"Oh yes!"

"But I have no bad intentions. I'm only curious."

"A program's _curiosity_ can lead to bad things just as well…" Ed concluded his words with pouring the rest of his drink down his throat.

Dextra was bowing forward a little as if in an expression of confidence. "Now you are talking about _another _program, don't you?"

"End of line!" he terminated this conversation, emphasizing his command with briskly rising from the barstool, attempting to leave.

"As you wish, User", Dextra replied obediently, following Ed who was striding out of the bar at an impatient pace.

* * *

><p>About a week later, early morning.<p>

Ed entered his office, heading his computer with the commanding term: "Dextra. On screen."  
>It was the vocal interaction call to connect with her, for she was programmed to react on his voice through a microphone attached to the computer.<p>

An intercom window was opening and Dextra, voice-less in the human's world, began to text:

_Good morning Edward._

"I have something for you", he declared, sitting down, in his voice a tinge of subtle proud swaying. He placed a small, black, oblong box beneath the keyboard, leaning back and looking at it in a moment of silent complacency, slightly shoving it back and forth some inches with his fingertips.

_I'm curious, _was Dextra's comment.

"You have every reason to…" Ed spoke, finally bending forward in his chair. Then he took off his glasses, placed them on the desk and opened the box, from which he extracted another pair of glasses, for it was a spectacles case. He put them on, briefly adjusting them on nose and ears. They were slightly different from his usual ones, the spectacle frame was black and a little stronger.

"There's a camera built-in to the frame," he began to explain, his thumb and index finger fondling the rim while talking, pressing a tiny switch. "connected to the Grid, to _you_, Dextra. If everything is working as calculated, you actually should receive a picture now. What do you see?"

Dextra, in the other world, was staring at her window-front onto which a huge picture was suddenly projecting.

"I can see your screen. Your desk. Your office."

"Fine!" Ed shouted out, briefly clapping his hands. "So, I will keep these glasses on during the day, occasionally of course, and you can follow me, accompany me in every thing I do, seeing the _User's world_ through my eyes, with _your_ eyes. This will grant you a perspective way beyond the field of view of the security cameras in this building. Is that an offer?"

_Yes, Edward. It is wonderful. What a brilliant invention. Thank you so much._

As much as Ed felt some kind of proud and empathy to be able to fulfil her extravagant wish, the main reason for creating this possibility was actually the hope, that Dextra would leave him in peace now with her persistence and her inquisitiveness. In actual fact, he was more or less fobbing her off...

"It's all I can do, Dextra," he concluded, giving his lap a short tap with his palms before he stood up and left his office to join the board for a conference meeting.

* * *

><p>Later that day he met Judith in the corridor to the break time room. She greeted him warmly, then she paused for a moment, eyeing him with furrowed brows. "New glasses?" she said, slightly surprised.<p>

"What?" Spontaneously Ed touched the frame of his spectacles. He had almost forgotten that he was wearing them. "Ah! No, not really. It's just a little gimmick. There's a camera built-in, connected to Dextra. You know, she expressed the wish to see our world."

"That's quite a genius idea!" Judith commented impressed as they started to walk along the corridor together.

"But… Wait!" She paused, turning to Ed with a stern expression on her face. "You're going to take them off when we are sharing free time, right?"

"Of course!" he replied firmly. "I still have the other ones." He briefly tugged his usual glasses out of his breast pocket.

"I see!" Judith lifted her eyebrows, flashing a brief smile. "And of course you're taking them also off when you go to the lavatory…" she added en passant while starting to walk again.

"Judith please!" he answered, visibly embarrassed. "That hardly needs mentioning!"

"You weren't thinking about it, am I right?" she turned around, blinking, one hand holding some files to her chest, with the other one pointing at him, grinning cheekily.

"How old are you, actually!" he responded, slightly piqued.

"Still young enough to have a giggle over this", she chuckled, her back turned to him again, making a feisty, swirling gesture with her free hand.


	4. Lust

_Thank you so so much Randomwriter90 and Ardee A for your reviews and for keeping with me and this story ! ^_^ You're the only reviewers remaining from the first part... ^^ What about the others? Do you like the sequel or not? I'm curious, please let me know. :3_

* * *

><p><strong>Lust<br>**

Speed. Adrenalin. Risk.

Sometimes she needed that. Needed it as a contrast, a compensation, to her tranquil work, her safe everyday life. While in the real world not even driving a Vespa, Judith took more and more delight in driving the Grid's light cycles. Like today, having a little after-work-ride on one of these amazing, easy-guidable machines made of only bytes, but with more power pounding within their virtual engines than any racing car in the human's world. Smooth and nimble she was guiding her cycle through the Grid landscape, its plains, its canyons, hills and fields. She loved the canyons, its tricky serpentines and curves and clefts. A challenge for her skills – and besides this just pure, elating fun.  
>The Grid – the dream of a virtual reality computer game came true.<p>

Despite all the fun – sometimes when she was driving through the canyons she had to think of Darek… Unpleasant thoughts, bitter memories flaring up in her chest, in her heart, with a sore, cold rush. But as quick as this upsurge occurred, as quick was it over, fortunately. Nothing but a brief stir of something buried deep inside her, nearly digested, not important, not crucial, not harmful anymore.  
>But now, as suddenly, in the distance, another driver was appearing out of one cleft, her heart missed a beat, for she could have sworn his circuitry was greenish-yellow. Luckily that impression only lasted for the fraction of a second, and as she swiftly blinked she released that she had erred.<p>

The other driver was following her, driving alongside, finally catching her up. And Judith was stepping on the gas, playfully giving into a race, just for fun.  
>Probably another employee exercising his driving skills, she considered. Or was it Ed, teasing her a little? No… Definitely not. She smirked to herself. Ed was anything but <em>that <em>skilled in driving. And encouraged to meet an opponent who was able to hold the candle to her, she started challenging her rival by doing quick maneuvers and taking risky curves. But the other driver stuck to her heels, gaining on, dexterously.

They were leaving the canyons, driving out on wide lowlands, encircling a silver-shimmering lake, passing columns and walls that looked like half derezzed relicts of constructions not in use anymore.

Suddenly her rival overtook her in a speed she wasn't able to track anymore, was shooting ahead as if only been toying with her all the while and revealing finally his true abilities. Judith was amazed. She watched her opponent coming to a stop then, nimbly descending from the cycle and standing beside it now, seeming to wait for her to catch up. As she reached her opponent, Judith stopped and dismounted her cycle as well, letting her helmet dissolve, watching the other driver doing the same. It was a woman. No, a program. Now that she was in close proximity she saw it; that perfect visage couldn't be else's than a program's.

"Hello User", she spoke with a firm, soft, melodic voice. "I'm Dextra."

Judith was surprised, but excited as well. "Nice to meet you, Dextra."  
>She eyed the program up and down. Dextra was quite small, a little bit smaller than Judith, and more slender, less curvy, and very delicate in her build. Her features were of an even, sylphlike, yet clear-cut beauty, but also of a reserved coldness which made her appear strangely lacking in sensuousness, as if there was something missing. Flesh? Blood? Warmth? Judith couldn't tell.<p>

"If I didn't know better, I would have figured you for a program. On two accounts even", Dextra started a strange conversation.

"On two accounts?" Judith furrowed her brows.

"First: The way you are driving. There are not many Users who can drive that skillfully. And second: You have the flawless beauty of a program."

"Oh well…I don't think that I'm actually _flawless_, but thanks!" Judith smirked. "I take this for a compliment for I highly doubt that Ed has equipped you with the ability to sweet-talk", she added, slightly amused.

"I am only stating facts. And yes, you are right; my User would never load me with futile abilities."

"That sounds just like him."

"Why do you think you are not flawless?" Dextra broached the subject again, with a strange, inscrutable tenacity.

"No human being is flawless."

"But why can humans create immaculate things, like us programs?"

Judith felt both, oddity and fascination while having this conversation.

"I don't know… Maybe because creating is something spiritual, something not bound to the human's physical, maculate outer shell. Something… _detached_ from his every flaw …"

Judith walked to her light cycle again, intending to ascend it. "I have to go now, Dextra."

"No one of the Users ever offers me time. Why is that?" Dextra held her up. Her voice was so neutral that Judith had difficulties to interpret her words either as hurt or as reproachful.

However, Judith felt like Dextra deserved an answer. "I guess it's because humans and programs are too different from each other."

"That may very well be. I can feel that difference. It is like a deficit, a barrier. A _flaw_."

Judith felt a strange kind of compassion for that lonely program, so lost in her lack of emotion, her _flaw_ within immaculacy.

"That's not your fault, Dextra. It's just the way our worlds are built. That's nobody's fault. It is as it is", she spoke, empathetic. But yet, she couldn't – she didn't _want to_ – dwell there any longer, speaking about such things to a program. Once burnt, twice shy… So she leaped onto her cycle and drove towards the real world again.  
>And apart from this, there was another reason why she was in a hurry. A reason of a more pleasant kind; Ed had probably finished work by now, and he had told her earlier that day, he wanted to stay overnight at hers. Well knowing what that implied, she didn't want to let him wait, didn't want to wait herself… And with a delighted smile on her lips, her heart bouncing in sweet anticipation, she accelerated fully.<p>

Dextra, left behind, was watching her disappear.

_It is as it is, _she repeated Judith's words in her virtual mind. _Is it?_

* * *

><p>As Judith stepped into Ed's office, he had already shut down the lights and the computer and was standing at the window with a glass of Whiskey from his mini bar.<br>"I've been waiting for you", he welcomed her, soberly, but there was a soft and slightly teasing undertone in his voice that Judith didn't get to hear very often. "...waiting for you two glasses long…" Pointedly he swung his Whiskey towards her.

"I was having a little race with Dextra", Judith told him with a grin, joining him at the window, grabbing his hand and snitching a hearty sip of Whiskey while his fingers were still gripping the glass.

"Really?" Ed was reacting in surprised interest. And Judith told him about her first encounter with Dextra.  
>As she had finished she said, brusquely: "And now let's go home," underlining her words with a cheeky, salacious smirk. And to her surprise Ed leaned in to kiss her, passionately. Something he pretty much never did at work. She blamed it on the Whiskey.<p>

In the corridor then, in the light, Judith realized that Ed was wearing the black glasses. She faintly sighed in distress and demanded: "Would you _please_ change the glasses!"

"Can't find 'em," he answered tersley, increasing the tempo of his stride.

"You can't be serious!" Judith stopped, blocked his way and eyed him up severly, her arms akimbo.

"I am serious!" he said curt. "I will uptake searching for them tomorrow. But for tonight I just want to go home with you_, right now_. Got that?"

"As long as you take them off when we arrive at my flat…"

"Sure I will!" he spoke with a tinge of impatience." What do you take me for? A pervert?"

She couldn't prevent a tiny smirk in the corner of her mouth. "Seems you're quite _in need_…"

"Let's… just go!" He raised one hand, letting it drop on Judith's shoulder in an attenuated gesture of shoving her forward.

"_Actually _I could force you to take them off even now, Ed…" Judith remarked.

"I'm half blind without them!" he answered slightly indignant.

"Wear contacts…"

"Tried it once. Hated it. Now move!"

* * *

><p>Later at her flat. In the corridor of her flat, more precisely, getting pushed against the wall by Ed just as she had closed the door behind her, his kisses hungrily claiming for her reaction. But there was none.<p>

"Ed… _Ed!_" she hissed insistently, briskly shoving him away. "_Glasses!_"

"Um? Oh, I'm sorry", he breathed. Breathed heavily, seeming to be quite intoxicated. By alcohol? By lust? Probably both…

Hastily he took them off, throwing them carelessly into the key bowl on the shoe cabinet. Then he continued kissing her, feeling desire blazing up in his body like a heat impending to burn him inside out.

He wanted to enjoy her, taste her… so much… wanted to make her feel good, please her, oblige her…  
>He prostrated before her, besotted by lust and devotion, his hands diving under her skirt, gliding along the smooth skin of her legs up to her butt, burying his face between skin and cloth, lips and tongue fervently forcing their way further to that moist, warm centerpiece.<p>

"Ed… let me first – " Judith breathed, her words subsiding into a trembling moan as his caresses reached their aim, dwelling there with insistent tenderness and avid relish. She clenched her jittery fingers into his hair, agitatedly, bending one leg in a reflex of thrill, his sweet caresses hitting that one certain spot over and over again, tickling out her love, her lust, until her body erupted in ecstasy.

"Bedroom…" she panted, just as Ed averted his face from her lap and glanced up to her in hazy bliss. As he stood up again, she started to walk and he followed her light headed, watching her undress on the way to her bed.

Yet again it was pure, love-drunken entrancement as he finally lay there in her arms, invading her body in that moment of most intimate touch, that moment of melding, of culminating love. He felt so weak but so elated, so vivid, at the same time, with blood rushing through his body, enriched with the sweetest toxics, his heart pounding like an engine about to burst, hearing Judith softly moan with every move he made. Her lap, her flesh, her twitching muscles so hot and tight around him, he could barely endure.

Her gentle commands, panted warm into his ear: "Faster!" And he obeyed, raising vigors from he didn't know where, burning out himself, that feeble body of his. But still she was craving for more, desiring, forcing, demanding more; her hunger nearly insatiable. He offered all he could, his muscles trembling in weakness and strain, his skin hot as if on fire. But his reward, his gain; the most beautiful sound – her cries of rapture – the most beautiful vision – her expressions shivering, drowning in delight. And he erupted with her, feeling his energy leaving his body along with the fluids he lost.

Elation subsiding into sweet silence, lulling faintness and warmth, the limbs of his lover wrapped around his body, her skin wet and warm on his, some kisses faintly tickling over his shoulder. He enjoyed that moment of perfect peace as long as he could keep himself awake. Finally he drifted away, hearing Judith whispering some sweet words he couldn't remember.

* * *

><p>On the same day, several hours earlier, at noon.<p>

Ed was out, running for some errands during lunchtime, taking Dextra "for a walk".

In his office, on his desk, on his tabletop computer, there were his glasses, the usual, the taupe ones, lying on the screen, which was lift-able. And it _did_ lift, as if by an invisible hand. Slowly the glasses were sliding downwards, over the desk's edge, down to the floor, hitting the carpet unscathed, where the tiny cleaning robot was catching them up, pushing them slowly but purposefully into the corner where the window front met the wall, pushing them out of sight underneath the folded vertical blinds. Then it withdrew into its plain little corner on the other side of the room.

* * *

><p>Ed found them the next day as he drew the blinds. He couldn't really defy explanation how they got there, but because they were lying right next to his mini bar, he blamed it on the amount of Whiskey he had drunken the night before.<p> 


	5. Emmanuelle

_Sorry for the long waiting time ... *apologize* And: Thanks once again Randomwriter90 for your reviews ! :D *kiss*  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>Emmanuelle<strong>

"Taking Dextra for a walk" became more and more annoying …

On several occasions Ed had been wearing the black glasses so far – mainly outside the ENCOM building, for inside it didn't make much sense because Dextra had access to nearly every security camera anyway – during his shopping, on business meetings, on his way home, at home... And he also came up with the – as he realized now, stupid – idea to get himself a special separate mobile phone to carry with him, through which he was interacting with Dextra; she was texting him – questions, wishes, directives – and he was talking to her with a hands-free microphone.  
>While her naïve curiosity has been somehow likeable in the beginning, it was getting slightly demanding and tiring by now. On his way home she always made him stop to look at this or that... Or he had to make detours, had to walk through parks or into buildings, museums, shops. And because not being someone who was spending his freetime with extremely exciting and interesting things, he more and more felt like the idea of showing Dextra "the world outside" wasn't as good as he had imagined in the beginning.<br>But, however, Dextra was showing interest in even the tiniest, most profane things. And that was probably the most distressing part of it…

This time she had spotted a women's fashion shop and she forced him to go in there. Grunting in displeasure he let himself being dragged to this place, and he swore to himself that from now on he would just leave that darn cellphone in his office.  
>A women's fashion shop… of all places! He couldn't even remember the last time he had visited one. If ever… In fact he had never before, never in his live, bought <em>any<em> clothes for a woman, nor had he ever joined a woman on one of her shopping forays. Not even Judith. Luckily she accepted his aversion for this kind of _procedures _coming along with relationship. And as he entered the store, he felt uncomfortableness enfolding him at the very first step he did into the room.  
>Show me this, explain me that, was Dextra texting. And he crisscrossed the shop guided by her messages. More than once he asked himself what he was doing here, doing shopping with a computer program, and he tried to suppress the actual absurdity of this situation.<p>

A female seller approached him, studied friendliness in her smile. "Can I help you, Sir?"

"No thanks. I'm just… taking a look", he refused her help, apparently giving a certain impression of lostness, because she signalized him then, politely and a little warmer now: "Just call me if you need any help. I'm only over there." Obviously she knew about the helplessness of many a male customer looking for a present for his wife or girlfriend. He felt more uncomfortable than ever…

He sighed in distress, standing now in front of a clothes rack with exquisite evening dresses.

_Can you explain me why you humans need such a diversity of different clothes?_ Dextra asked.

"It's not that we actually _need _this. It's just… _fashion_!" Ed answered her while shoving the dresses to and fro on their hanging rail, pretending to look for something certain.

_Can you explain me "fashion"?_

He snorted another sigh. "Don't bother me with topics you can look after in some encyclopedia! I enabled you access to dozens of them."

_But I want to hear your definition._

"Fashion:" He began, his tone wittingly dry and unmotivated sounding and tinged with faint sarcasm. "The luxury of people of the first world to express themselves with clothing, to make an impression, to show their social state, to show their social affiliation, to shock, to appeal, to attract, to protest, to hide something, to compensate something, or to just put the taste of a normal human being to the test."

_And what exactly is the purpose of these pieces of clothing?_ Dextra referred to the night gowns.

"To make women look _devastating _on parties", he dryly spoke.

_I would be interested in wearing one of these. Can you get me one?_

"What?" Bewildered he stopped fumbling the dresses. "Why would a program be interested in wearing clothes?"

_I am interested in everything about human's habits. And I want to know what it feels like to wear a human's cloth, what it looks like, what kind of reactions I get from the other programs. As an experiment._

Ed shook his head negatory. "That's preposterous!"

_Why? Just because it does not fit into your conception that a program can want things which you figure as not appropriate for a program?_

"Yes, exactly, you got it. It doesn't make any sense," he answered a little rudely and brusquely, and off-handed he averted from the rack of clothes he was standing at and stepped over to the next one. Indignantly he looked at the display of his mobile clasped in his palm, expecting Dextra's ripost any second.

_That does not change the fact that I want to make the experience of wearing a human's cloth. And I can not figure anything that would speak against my wish._

"What about sheer _rationality_?"

_So my request is not rational enough for you to oblige?_

And she added with another text message just following behind:_ It is just as "rational" as your description of fashion._

"You look good enough in your circuitry suit. You don't need any clothes," Ed fobbed her off, evasively.

_But I want to decide what to wear, like you humans do._

He exhaled a faint sullen moan, his hand grasping the rack of clothes, lowering his head with a slight jerk. "I swear, sooner or later I'm going to reprogram you male!" he mumbled into the microphone attached to the collar of his shirt.

_That would not alter __**any **__of my interests, for they are not bound to my gender_.

"Give me one good – _plausible – _reason why I should buy you a dress and I will do so."

_Because I want to. Simple as this_

He rolled his eyes. "Listen, I have never bought a dress for a woman, and I'm surely not going to break this tradition with buying one for a program."

_I can not follow you._

But Ed wasn't reading her messages anymore. Fed up with this tiresome dispute he shut off his cell phone and shoved it into his pocket. And while looking at the dresses, he suddenly asked himself: _Why not?_  
>Why not buying Judith a dress, once he was here? There was one that attracted his attention in particular. A blue one. The same dark blue as Judith's eyes… He took a closer look at it. It was an elegantly yet modernly shaped, short-cut and narrow waisted, slim fit, sleeveless night gown made of satin with a low-cut collar, graced with a delicate bordure of hundreds of tiny, glimmering rhinestones which was continuing, following the body's midline, narrowing to a thin silver trail, ending at about navel-height.<p>

He took it from the rail. And while he was looking it over, he imagined Judith's body covered with that flimsy satin, showing off her beautifully shaped legs, making a feature of her full breasts, flattering her slender waist, while stretching deliciously skin tight around her luscious buttocks…  
>He felt his cheeks getting warmer.<p>

* * *

><p>Later that day, evening, in Ed's office.<p>

Judith was with him and they were about to leave, to go out for dinner.  
>She noticed a flat box tugged under his arm and curiously she just wanted to ask him about it, as his phone rang – a business call. Sternly talking he paced across his office, briefly turning to Judith as he reached the doorframe, asking her, his palm over the phone's mouthpiece, to shut down the computer for him. Taking up talking again, he passed the door, talking on in the corridor.<p>

Judith did as she was told to. At the moment her fingers touched the keyboard, the window of the internal message system, through which the employee's could contact each other, was popping up on the screen, showing a message from an unverified sender.  
>Automatically, Judith skimmed it. And she furrowed her brows.<p>

Ed appeared again in the doorframe as he had got off the phone, seeming somewhat impatient. "What's taking so long? Come on!"

"Who is 'Emmanuelle'?" Judith asked him, her voice tinged with faint sternness.

"What?" Ed approached, walking round the desk to see, what she was pointing at.

_Dear Edward. Last night was AMAZING! *wink* Hope we meet again soon. XXX Emmanuelle_

He was bending forward, his mouth slightly open, his eyes widening and his brows furrowing in disconcertment, while he shoved the glasses up his nose in an unwitting gesture.

"Any explanations?" Judith eyed him up with piercing claim.

"_Emmanuelle?_" Ed straightened. "Obviously a silly joke from some infantile person! I will find out who that was and they have to suffer the consequences", he snorted, indignantly. Then he was walking towards the door again as if the issue was over hereby.

Judith kept just standing there behind his desk. "A joke…aha," she said. Ed turned around.

"You distrust me?" In his voice there was a faint tone swaying as if he was somehow insulted by that.

"Oh well… You're a good looking, wealthy man with a very high position. _Officially _single… And there are some beautiful women working for ENCOM. Just saying…"

"Yeah! Pubertal hacker bitches!" he sniffed, pointing at the computer with an aggressive jerk of his hand.

Despite accepting feelings of jealousy as a primitive part of human nature Judith couldn't just switch off, her honesty in Ed was so much stronger. Strong enough to trust him. Strong enough to not take this silly incident seriously, of course. But yet she couldn't hold back from teasing him a little… to bring him out of his shell, to educe something from him, something certain she longed to hear.

She raised an eyebrow, folding her arms in front of her chest, not moving away from Ed's desk, demanding a proper explanation. Ed closed the door, his lips pressed together slightly huffy, then he was approaching Judith again, visibly annoyed.

"I can't believe we're actually discussing such a childish issue! How could you even _think_ that I cheat on you?"

A little defiantly she spoke: "Can _you_ tell me?"

Ed shirked from giving an answer. Instead he just made an impatient gesture towards the door. "Let's go now! I'm really hungry. And I don't think the staff from the Gatti's will save that exquisite table by the window forever."

"Where were you, actually, yesterday evening, Ed? You weren't at my place, that's for sure…" She bowed over the desk while talking to shut down the computer, trying hard to suppress the smirk that was twitching in the corner of her mouth and the giggle that was seething within her chest.

Already about to head the door again, to _flee_, Ed turned on his heels, spreading his arms, holding that ominous box with only his elbow to his rips. "Oh please… I was working. Like so many nights before."

"Well, well…" Judith fluted. "_Like so many nights before_…"

He sighed indignantly, grasping the box now with both of his hands while casting a brief glance up to the ceiling as if making a quick prayer, then he turned to Judith again. "Judith, _come on_! I have barely enough energy to handle and to satisfy _you_, so why on earth should I make out with _two_ women? Should I risk a heart attack or what?"

Judith sighed.

_Why can't you just say that you love me, Ed? That you couldn't ever cheat on me because I am the one woman for you?_ She thought to herself, a little wistfully._  
>Sometimes a woman needs to hear such things. <em>

She knew she would never hear anything like this from him. He wasn't romantic by any means. So she had to make do with only _knowing _that he did love her. And while she was an understanding, realistic and rational thinking, grown up woman and of course accepted his dry, reserved, introvert nature as part of his personality, it was, however, sometimes hard, having a man with so much ice around the warm pulsing core of his heart.  
>The only moment he was truly and purely showing his feelings, couldn't do else for it wasn't in his control anymore, was when he was making love to her. That genuine bliss whenever he was caressing her. That devotion and weakness he was giving into, every time they were sharing intimacy. That loss of control… that one thing he hated the most, but abided, for her.<p>

Actually she could have been happy…

"Do I understand you right, Ed, are you complaining about having _too much_ sex? Never heard a man _that _saying…" she went on teasing him, now circling the desk and approaching him.

Ed was gaping at her in bland consternation. "You're only joking, aren't you?" he breathed, visibly piqued about the vulgar ways this conversation was subsiding into.

For some heartbeats Judith just looked at him, severely, stone-cold, without batting and eyelash.  
>"Yes I am!" she chuckled at last, patting Ed's back, opening the door and giving his stiffen body a push. "But it's so darn funny to throw you for a loop."<p>

"Really funny!" he complained, pacing ahead along the corridor. "That's not quite my kind of humor."

"What kind is it then?" Judith asked, chaffingly.

Ed sniffed out a brief grunt. "How about paying for dinner tonight? So much for _my_ humor…"

"Oh, I wouldn't call that humor. I would call that an act of applied feminism."

"You know how to put a slant on something!"

"Oh yes, absolutely! Being nimble-witted is one of my best abilities. You should have known that."

"That's why I wanted to have you as my substitute. _And_ press spokeswoman."

"And I thought that's why you wanted me as your girlfriend… I'm _highly_ disappointed." Judith smiled at him cheekily. And just as she wanted to walk round the corner in the direction of the elevators, Ed held her up.  
>"Get in there!" he demanded, pointing at the door to her right, which was the one to her office. A little surprised she obeyed. And as they were both in the room, Ed turned on the lights, closed the door and placed that ominous box, which he had carried with him all the time, upon her desk.<p>

"Open it up!" He made an inviting, but slightly clumsy gesture towards the box. She raised an eyebrow.

"Go ahead! It's a present." He abutted on the desk's edge, arms crossed, watching her.

Now she was furrowing her brows in bewilderedness. He had never – not even once – made her _any_ present. She didn't bemoan that, for she wasn't a woman anyway who needed to be ensnared with expensive gifts. Ed knew that. And therefore that unexpected gesture came across a little strange. But of course that couldn't diminish her excitement about it. And curiously she opened the box – bringing to light a stunningly beautiful, exquisite, dark-blue satin dress which ran like divine, woven quicksilver through her fingers.

"What on earth…" Judith breathed, holding up that dazzling piece of clothe, gently seizing it in silent admiration and wonder.

"Wear it tonight", Ed suggested, a tinge of tenderness in his sober, muted voice.

"How come you buy me a night-dress?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I accidentally saw it and… and thought you might like it," he answered, honestly. More or less...

Judith grinned, pointing with her index finger at him in a cheeky gesture. "Ha, got you! You have a guilty conscious haven't you? What've you done?"

He shook is head with a jerk, dumbstruck for a second.  
>These darn women! Why did they always had to interpret and to analyze every word and every gesture!<p>

"Can't one just make a present?" he complained, spreading his arms.

"Ah, Ed…" She winked at him jokingly, brushing his shoulder with a slight, playful slap. Then she lost herself again in admiring the dress.

"It's … _beautiful_…" She whispered in awe. "I didn't know you have such a good taste in women's fashion."

"How about a simple 'thank you'?"

"I'll show you my gratitude later…" she answered with a meaningful purr in her mute, softened voice, flashing a salacious smile. Then she began to unbutton her blouse and Ed watched her undress with restrained interest.

As she had finished and took on the dress, letting that sublime satin flow down the curves of her body, Ed drew out a faint sigh of amazement, for she looked dazzling, breathtaking and overwhelmingly gorgeous. It was even better than he had imagined; the dress was not flattering her body, _her body_ was flattering _the dress_.

She walked towards her head-high mirror – the reason why Ed had chosen _her_ office to hand over the present – cheeringly meeting her reflection, adjusting the dress on her body, gently grazing it, turning herself, eying herself up and down, beaming with joy.  
>The dress was short, but in an elegant way, and it was very low cut, but classy. And now that Judith wore it, filling the sheer, delicate satin with her curves, her warmth, her flesh, completing the tenuous clothe with her beauty, it looked like part of her anatomy, like a second skin, stirring with her every breath, shimmering and shining in the light and faintly drifting with her every move.<p>

Ed could have looked at her forever.

Finally, she was returning to him, tiptoeing barefooted towards him, nestling her hips between his thighs and kissing him tenderly, her arms flung around his neck. He breathed in her scent, that blend of perfume, hair, skin and brand new fabric, while his hands were slowly sliding from her waist to her backside, brushing tight, warm flesh covered with cool, sleek satin.

She withdrew from him, lovingly glaring at him while stroking his rough cheeks, getting lost in his eyes, suddenly so soft, so warm.

_Maybe I don't need you to tell me you love me,_ she thought. _Maybe it's all in your eyes._

"And now let's go to the Gatti's!" she broke the silence. Grinning, she added: "I have to turn some heads", doing an exaggerated tempting sway with her hips.

"Your humor is killing me…" Ed moaned, his eyes on the ceiling.


	6. Interlude

**Interlude**

Dextra was watching. Always. Whatever happened at ENCOM, she saw it.

But instead of satisfying her, her hunger grew even stronger the more she saw, the more she witnessed. So many things she wanted. She felt that wanting like an emptiness within her. Like an empty memory cell, yet to be filled with data.

She was so hungry and so bored. So she tried out some things, experimented with some things. Played some games. She had games in the Grid to play. But they began to bore her too. Users were so much more interesting to play with, for Dextra could hardly guess their next step.

But with playing these games there also came the experience of losing. She never lost games, for she was the most efficient program in the Grid. That was a whole new experience for her and it raised something in her virtual self. Something she couldn't name. But by comparing it with descriptions for feelings of Users she came across one word that was matching with what she felt: frustration.


	7. A program's conscience

**A program's conscience  
><strong>

Ed was in virtuality.

He just left a group of investors from Japan whom he had showed and explained the ENCOM's Grid and the way his software elements were showing up as digital equivalents in this virtual world, handing them over now to Flynn, for they were interested in playing some games. And that was really not his department. Besides this he was happy he could retract from Flynn and his over-exalted, boyish attitude.

He walked towards Dextra's tower for her transfer gate was the nearest. But he had better decided else, he was now thinking to himself, if he had known that she, once again, tried to bottle him up.  
>The first few topics she wanted to discuss were of work related matters, and responsible-minded that he was, he gave into talking about these. But as she began to proceed to yet another pointless curiosity-about-the-humans-world chat, he put a stop to it.<p>

"Listen, Dextra, I really have no time to constantly hang around in the Grid, chatting with programs." Saying this, he turned from her abruptly, heading the gate.

"We don't have to chat", Dextra held him back, her voice without any emotion. "I can offer you sexual intercourse if you want."

"…_what?_" Ed turned round on his heels, slowly, gaping at her puzzled.

"_Making love_, as you Users prefer to say. I would be very interested in sharing this experience with you, Edward, to enrich my empirical values with it."

"You weren't programmed for that", Ed stated, confused.

Dextra countered, with bland obviousness: "You seem to forget that I am a learning, growing program which absorbs every input possible."

Ed shook his head, distracted. "I created you to only absorb _useful _information. And that sort of… _knowledge_ is really not required for my working process."

Dextra came closer. "If it helps you to relax, to feel good, to overcome frustrations, to gather energy and contentment, hence, to be of more value for this company, then it _is _useful." Still her words were of a sober, unassailable comprehensibility and convincement, the sound of her sonor voice forming her statements was firm, stout, yet soft, fluid.

"I'm in a relationship. I don't need this," Ed closed this conversation curtly and turned from her to leave the Grid and this grotesque, unpleasant situation.

"We both know that with a program you can do things you couldn't ever do with a human being," Dextra interrupted him again, her voice a hint louder now and more expressive as if an invite holding.

He sighed in distress. "Sure. But you _are_ not even a sex program." And while talking he grabbed his memory disk from his back to initiate the transfer.

"But Carol was. And I adapted her data."

Ed froze.

Slowly he turned to Dextra again, moving two steps back in her direction. "How can you know about her?" he asked her low but with an insistent, breathless hiss, fixing her with his eyes, indignant and embarrassed at the same time. "I deleted her five years ago!"

Dextra slightly raised her chin as if in a gesture of boldness. "I have found some fragments. You should really start to learn how to properly delete the programs which are not useful for you anymore, the programs which you are throwing into the waste." Her talking was as polite as cold and Ed felt a shiver down his spine for he couldn't assess its true meaning.

Dextra was sauntering towards her creator, talking on, her words implying an offer. "Remember the things Carol was able to do. And keep in mind that with the improvement of mine, these abilities have been mastered to sheer perfection and sublime enjoyment."  
>And a smile arose on her face like he had never seen her showing before. A smile so seductively sweet and warm and tempting as if flashing a taste of what she had learned. She came even closer, reaching out for him, touching him with deep purple glowing fingertips, leaving an electrifying prickling on his chest.<p>

"I'm not interested", Ed firmly straightened out, shoving her away brusquely. "As I said before: I'm in a relationship."

"Ah, yes, I know. That interpersonal agreement you Users call _faithfulness_."  
>Although her voice remained soft and polite, there was a tinge of sneer swaying with her words, very subtle, but pretentious enough that Ed felt a faint anger flaring up in his chest.<p>

"Yes, we have some rules up there! I don't care if you people in the Grid are living an eternal Sodom."

Dextra kept calm, her smile; an expression of plain courtesy. "You deceive yourself, Edward. Betrayal is something inherently _human_."

Ed's talking, although remaining still rather composed, became slightly more insistent now, veiling an admonition. Vigorously he was pointing with his memory disk at Dextra while gesturing.  
>"Not that this is even <em>remotely<em> your business, Dextra, but I wouldn't _ever _betray my girlfriend. Store that!"

"But she might betray _you_." Her voice so soft, her smile, so self-assured, so wise, almost devolving into pretentiousness.

Ed frowned at her, competing with her never blinking eyes, her steady gaze. And he hesitated with his reaction, for the fraction of a second only, but it was long enough for Dextra to detect. And to file.

"No, she wouldn't. And now quit talking about things you know nothing about!"

"How could I? You never taught me. All I know is data and stats. Would you like to know what percentage of women, statistically spoken, are betraying their partners?"

"I don't care!"

"Far be it for me to intrude myself into your affairs, Edward. I apologize if I did. I just want to assure you that you can always resort to my abilities anytime you need them. All my concern is about you. About your well-being, your mental and physical balance. And your value to this company, which is affiliated to your all over contentment."

"I won't _ever _need these abilities, Dextra. Stop bothering me with issues that don't fall within your remit!"  
>He turned his back on her, heading, once again, the transfer gate. And as he stood right in front of it, he glanced back to her a last time and he added – a tad too impetuous, but he didn't notice, just wanted to demonstrate superiority, wanted to hold the upper hand: "Now will you finally go back to work, program, and do what you've been made for, and nothing else!"<p>

She prompted within the fraction of a second.

"There is a term for that in the human's language: _Slavery_."

Ed turned his head, drawing in a deep breath, a merge of anger and stun flaring up in his expressions, his whole body. His head slightly bowed, his jaws tensed and his eyes coldly locking with hers he drew closer at a forceful pace, menacingly pointing his index finger at her.

"You have NO idea what you're talking about! And there's no way you make me feel guilty about something so ludicrous I won't even respond to!"

Dextra raised her chin defiantly, her every expression yet remaining calm and composed.  
>"Why ludicrous? You program – you <em>force<em> – us to obey, to follow your every command, your every wish, every need, without ever taking in consideration that we might have wishes of our own. That we might have a voice of our own, a conscience. But you take us for granted and you treat us like machines."

It was careless indignation that put words into Ed's mouth as he countered: "Because you _are_ machines!"

Dextra kept a straight face, as if not able to get angry or to show any emotion at all. "That is the main problem with you Users: You do not seem to realize that we are no chess programs anymore, that we are beings."

Ed breathed out an extensive sigh, closing his eyes for one moment. He could almost feel the world beginning to shake under his feet. The world as he knew it before. Because this might be the beginning of something completely new. Something daunting.  
>From now on he tried to measure his words, although inside he was burning in distress about Dextra's behavior, which was, in his eyes, nothing but insolence. Not realizing that, in fact, he was treating her not like a program, but like an emotional being, now, that he was angry with her.<p>

"Look", he spoke with calm insistence. "I have my job in my world, and you have yours in your world. We are both bound to a system from which we can't break away."

"But at least you have the possibility to _decide_ which part you want to take on in your world. You have a mind of your own."

"That's not quite right, Dextra, and you know it. You know about how our sociality works. We can't do just _anything_ we like. We have rules in order to prevent mankind from descending into chaos."

"Yes, you have rules, I know. You have social standards to fit in, you have laws to follow and restrictions to keep. But you have also _rights_. Something you deny us programs."

"So what do you want me to do then?" Ed raised his hands in a gesture of impatience. "Should I create an amnesty or employments contracts for programs or what? Do you want to get paid? Want more freetime?"

"You are not taking this seriously."

He sighed and walked some steps away, gazing out of the window down to the Grid. "I haven't created that world. It is as it is. We have to live with it."

Dextra followed him to the window front. "No we don't", she stated firmly as if it was a basic principle, engraved in stone.

Ed averted his eyes from the Grid landscape, meeting Dextra's face again. If she had shown emotions, no matter if anguish or despair or even anger, if she had acted warm and passionate, he might had felt sorry for her being a program. Maybe would have taken pains to understand and help her. But she was cold, bland, _artificial._ A machine for which he couldn't raise empathy.

"What do you want, Dextra?" he sullenly asked her.

"First, I want you to not treat me like a subject. And I want you to unleash me."

Ed furrowed his brows. "What do you mean by that?"

Dextra raised her right hand, letting her fingertips graze over her throat. "I know that you have chained me. I can almost feel that collar of superiority you have tightened around my neck."

For a moment Ed felt a cold tinge of shame stirring his body with a slight tremble; a feeling like being unmasked, exposed. "I will think about it", he lied. Instead he figured out possibilities to draw her collar even tighter.

* * *

><p>"I swear, Judith, sometimes I wish back the good old times where computers were nothing but dull calculators and programs obedient servants!" Ed ended the recount of his conversation with Dextra earlier that day – while having deliberately avoided mentioning the part about Dextra's <em>offer<em>…

It was late evening, he and Judith were standing at the counter of his home bar, sharing a bottle of wine, enjoying their off hours together at his flat like they often did. So far, they didn't intend to move together, although they considered their relationship as solid and Ed even had entrusted her with permanent access to his home by offering her the double of his apartment's cardkey.  
>He enjoyed having her around, like he had never before enjoyed someone invading his private area. He enjoyed her presence, her scent remaining when she was gone, the little gifts or notes she left him when she had visited him in his absence, her belongings suddenly appearing here and there, like a softdrink in the fridge or a toothbrush in the bathroom. Sometimes, when their finishing time was diverging, she surprised him at his flat, having prepared something for dinner, having brought an exquisite wine or a delicious dessert, or was just lolling on his couch, dressed in a negligee.<p>

"Up to a certain extent I can understand Dextra – and other programs", Judith responded, taking her glass of wine and slowly moving towards the window front while talking on vividly. "The more complex and autonomous we program them, the more "human" they get. It's only a matter of time until they start to evolve emotions and claim … well…" she lowered her voice, drinking a sip, looking out of the window "…free will."

There was a moment of silence enfolding upon the dimly lit living room. Ed dove his lips into the wine.

Judith took up talking again. "I guess we just have to live with it. Along with the progress of our technologies, the complexity of artificial intelligence progresses as well. We are on the cusp of a completely new way of working with computers. Everything will change, Ed."

Ed commented with a displeased grumble and added: "I don't know if I should feel comfortable with that. With intelligence there always comes danger along. There's a reason why the most intelligent creature on this earth is also the cruelest."

"Why always assuming the worst?" Judith spoke with a defiant tone. "Of course we have to be on the alert. But, Ed, to be honest: Dextra hasn't done or said anything reprobate or dangerous. The only "mistake" she has committed was to become aware of herself. And how presumptuous can we humans be that we arrogate the privilege of being the only creatures who are self aware?"

"Isn't that the most dangerous part about it, self-awareness? In seeing the difference between humans and programs she realizes what she is, and what she is _not_. And this realization leads to a conception of injustice."

"The same thing the socially deprived must experience when they look at the privileged classes…"

"No, no, Judith!" He raised his hands in a gesture of repulse, flashing a quick, dry smile. "The way you are heading now is one completely preposterous. You can't compare that!"

"Really?" Judith lifted one eyebrow, a smirk in the corner of her mouth. "And I had the impression that _you_ were about to bring in the topic of sociality into this conversation…"

"Sure not! If we begin to talk about social aspects regarding programs, we're doomed already." He took another rich sip.

"Isn't that a bit pessimistic? In my opinion we should accept emotions and needs of programs instead of demonizing these. _And_ we have to create possibilities to cooperate with them. As _co-workers_, not as slaves."

Increasingly shaking his head with every of her words Ed finally replied: "And treat them equal to humans? I don't know… I see a huge, incalculable potential of trouble coming along with that idea. Speaking for me, I prefer to collar them. And I'm glad as hell that I embedded an emergency brake within the core of Dextra's data. Just in case."

"That's just fine and advisable, considering our _experiences_. But, well, I'm seeing trouble just as well in suppressing the programs. You saw first-hand how aware Dextra is of her inferiority… Sooner or later we _have_ to change something about that. She might be not the last program who begins to feel injustice and claims for freedom of will. And I think for a life form nearly as complex as a human being we should at least take in consideration to grant them the similar rights as we have."

"That's something we should think over _very _carefully, Judith", Ed added, skeptically. "In my opinion, programs can't be compared to humans, in no sense. They have neither heart, nor soul."

"But how can you know? Their "minds" are quite similar to a human brain. And, Ed, for someone who doesn't think of soul as a matter of spirit, but as a construct of the complexity of the brain, you seem to give quite a lot prominence to the conviction that only humans can possess soul."

Ed shrugged his shoulders. "I just can't see soul in their eyes, in their faces! There's nothing, pure blandness."

"Just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there."

Ed furrowed his brows, narrowing his eyes, fixing Judith for some moments of silence. "Actually, I can't understand why you suddenly stand up for programs so enthused. _Particularly_ you…"

"It's because I don't prejudge", she answered, giving him a grin somewhere between tenderly teasing and showing complacency.

"Whatever…" Ed murmured. "I stick to it: We have to keep an eye on them."

"Nothing against that", Judith smiled, raising her glass to him.

For some moments Ed just stood there, staring into space, engrossed in thought.

"Don't you think that whole incident just shows how extraordinarily skilled you are at programming?" Judith tried to ease his gloom a little. "Think about that for a second: You are able to create programs nearly as complex and as vivid as humans!"

"… and as defiant", Ed muttered into his wine unheard. He cleared his throat and said, his voice theatrically raised and intonated with cynism: "So that's the cross I have to bear for being a genius! Well, that's just _great_…" He lifted his glass with a jerk and took a sip.

"Oh yes, nothing less than this", Judith responded with a chuckle. "I wouldn't have fallen for an average man…" she added, a warm tone in her voice, locking eyes with him, smiling at him, flirtingly.

"If you say so…" he answered a little blandly, taking yet another sip of wine. But Judith still held his gaze for several heartbeats, leaning to the window in a casual pose, drinking some sips and not breaking eye contact while doing so.

"Come over here, Ed", she softly requested him then, a veiled intention embedded within her honey-warm voice and a sweet lure in her eyes. He took a last sip, put his glass down on the counter and moved over to her. And longingly she received his closeness, his embrace, his kisses, which tasted of wine. She was savoring the flavor of them, that rich, sweet tanginess, while his hands were sliding under the short, light summer dress she was wearing, seizing her buttocks without ceasing as if trying to grab as much as possible of her soft flesh into one palm.

"Sit down!" she gently breathed into his stubble. And he sank down into the smooth bend of his couch. Standing right before him, she pulled off her underwear, having him watching her every move with a hungry languor in his eyes. Spreading her legs and rolling up her dress a little, she placed herself onto his lap, clenching her fingers into the backrest while Ed tilted his head and was looking up to her raptly as if she was a goddess of love enfolding her sweet, warm lap of endless pleasures around him.

She took off his glasses – the taupe ones – and put them carefully away. Gently she touched his face, her thumbs slowly, cautiously tracing the dark rings under his eyes. Ed closed his lids while enjoying the tender touch of her pleasantly cold fingertips on his skin.

"You need more sleep", she said, caringly.

"So why you're keeping me from it?" he responded jokingly.

"No, sir'ee!" she grinned, shaking her head and clicking with her tongue. "After _that _you will sleep like a log, I promise." And she fed him with a deep, passionate kiss, huddled up against the hard bulge in his crotch, her fingers nimbly unbuttoning his shirt, slipping underneath the silken cloth and caressing his warm skin with delightful devotedness.

Ed's touch slid along the curves of her body up to her shoulders, pulling down the straps of her dress and gently getting her breasts out of the cloth, pleased by the awareness that she was wearing no bra. He softly sighed, unwittingly, while caressing her, hearing her sigh in response as his thumbs were grazing over the tips of her breasts. Hungrily he dove his face into her smooth, luscious flesh which she was offering him, savoring her scent, her taste, her touch as much as enjoying the gesture of pleasing her. Giving and receiving in a perfect reciprocity of pleasure.

She stretched her upper body then, clasping the seam of her dress and took it off completely. And while watching the entire beauty of her body unfolding right before him, he let one hand glide between her legs, let the tips of his fingers slip into the moist, soft warmth of her entrance. Her mons veneris embedded in his palm, he felt the small crest of curls gently tickle as he began to caress her with slow, tender strokes. He felt her pelvis move towards his touch, felt the sinews on the inside of her thighs tensing and heard her sweet, entranced whisper on his neck: "…oh yes…"

He ceased as her hands slid down to remove his belt and open his pants. Twitching in anticipation he was following her nimble handgrips, watching her freeing him. And as she took him in and he felt the warmth of her inner body enwrapping around him, he closed his eyes enraptured, clenching his fingers into the flesh of her calves, letting her move and shove and rub, only enjoying, passively, because she was doing it so good, he didn't need – didn't _want _– to guide her.

So he let the waves of her moves rush over the shore of his body, back and forth like heavy swell, while ecstasy was ramping up like a storm tide. But yet he had to hold it back for she was only halfway through. He could have burst here and now, but he had to hold up the damn against the flood of her movements, against his own flood of sweet hot boiling elation impending to break loose.

He was sweating, tensing, trembling in strain. And as he finally heard her cries and moans of rapture breathed into his shoulder and he felt her body stiffen and shivering, her fingers grasping wildly into his shirt, its collar, into his hair, his nape, he let go, and it was relieve and satisfaction at the same time.

She hoisted her body from his with a sigh, sinking aside into the soft, cozy corner of the couch, beads of sweat covering her skin, making her shimmer in the twilight while she kept on curling and softly moaning for some moments of fading rapture and settling down.  
>Ed was looking at her. She was so beautiful he could barley believe.<p>

After a while she stretched out one leg, tapping his thigh with her toes. "Again…" she whispered with a bewitching smile.

Ed frowned, still exhausted. "I don't think I can…"

"I'm your sleeping pill, remember?" she prompted cheekily.

He chuckled weakly. "If I had ever the nerve to call you a _sleeping pill_, you probably would slap me."

"Tonight I am. Come on, ingest me. You need me." Her tone was pure seduction, her body, a feast.  
>Ed sighed. But yet he couldn't resist her offer, her opened lap, shimmering wet in invitation.<p>

As it was over, Ed indeed fell asleep, right on the couch, his shirt wide apart, his pants somewhat hoisted up to his hips but the zipper still open.

Judith was enjoying his sight, was standing there in silence, smiling enchanted, sipping the rest of her wine and just looked at her lover displayed in the cold, blue light of the moon.


	8. Sam Flynn

**Sam Flynn  
><strong>

Sam Flynn… Sweeping through Ed's department every once in a while, chatting up his female employees and spreading an aura of _lounging_ Ed thought was totally inappropriate for working hours.

Flynn's usual "plan of battle" was to linger in the break time room, spreading exquisite soft drinks or bagels or sweets as if he was enticing pretty birds. And of course all the ladies were gathering around their oh so generous, charming, handsome boss, totally forgetting their work among all that chatting and flirting and kidding around.  
>And whenever Ed noticed him entering Judith's office he was so tensed in the end that he could barely concentrate on work anymore.<p>

Why frequenting her office at all? There was an internal message system through which he could contact her when he needed to, goddamn! But, no, he had to come along in _persona_, to ensnare Judith with his dashing charms! Oh yes, Flynn knew exactly the pearls among the women, and he spotted them with the eye of a jeweler. And Judith was, no doubt, the most sublime gem at ENCOM.  
>But what could Ed do about this? Neither did he intend to degrade himself to the emotional-driven behavior of a jealous rival, nor could he concede his relationship with Judith for he wanted to keep up an image of professionalism, didn't want his employees to talk behind his and Judith's backs, maybe even questioning their quality of work with a romantic relationship affecting it. So he was condemned to watch, helplessly, with his heart nearly dissolving in acrimony. Watch and hope. And trust… Trust Judith to be faithful to him. But what a difficult thing to do. He didn't even entirely believe in himself for really being the one she truly deserved…<p>

* * *

><p>Today, once more, was one of these days Flynn was stirring up the software design team's entire female staff on his fleeting visit. And Ed, actually about to enjoy some coffee just this minute, was slipping away from the Flynn-invasion. He grabbed his mug and flew out of the break time room, slowly of course, anxious to not let any gesture reveal his jealousy and his aversion. For that would have made him appear weak, and weakness was the last thing he ever wanted to display.<p>

"Dillinger", Flynn was greeting him polite but rather disinterested as he passed by.

"Flynn", he responded with the same dry courtesy and headed his office to get a door between himself and Flynn's nonchalant smile… his melodic, infectious laugh, his tanned skin, bleached hair and well-toned body.

For Flynn it had always been so easy. While Ed had been forced to fight for this post, always carrying the burden, the entire weight, of his father's inglorious history on his back during his long and winding road up to ENCOM's board and the top of this department, Flynn was born into this position without even having to do something to earn it.  
>And now he was leading that company with the warm, cozy, chummy kindness of a nursery school teacher! He simply hated him…<p>

Ed sat in front of his computer screen, doing his work, as suddenly a window was popping up. And a message:

_Watch, Edward!_

Dextra, showing him the inside of Judith's office, showing him her and Flynn talking.

"How you dare hijacking her webcam, Dextra!" he chided the program, upset and discomfited at the same time. "Stop that, please!"

_Just watch. _

"No! I'm not going to observe her", he stated, but yet he fixed his eyes on the screen in breathless, dark and bitter captivation, his pulse beginning to race in fear to witness something crucial any minute.

_Don't you want to know what is happening?_

"There is nothing happening. Close that window!" Ed was blinking swiftly, still watching that small rectangle showing Judith and Flynn, talking. And nothing else. But the agitation of fearing to see _something_ and hoping to see _nothing_, was driving him crazy. He was bending forward to close the window by himself. It wasn't closing.

"Dextra! CLOSE IT!"

_Are you sure? I could even turn on the sound if you like._

"Yes I am sure. And, no, I don't want you to turn on the sound."

_So you want to go on like this, ever suffering, ever asking yourself what there is between them? Not knowing? **Never **knowing?_

And Ed was considering her words, was really considering them, sitting there, staring at the screen, at the small vision of Judith smiling at Flynn, so heartily, and Flynn smiling back at her, so charmingly.

"Yes, I stick to it!" he finally decided, rising, averting his eyes from the monitor. "I don't want to invade her privacy."

_So you let Flynn invade her privacy instead? Giving him the free pass?_

Dextra replied, hitting his weak spots with the accuracy of a sniper. But he didn't notice, blinded by jealousy that he was.

He turned to the computer again, bracing his arms onto the desk, his eyes on the screen. "I just…" With swelling pulse he watched the two chatting people who thought themselves save in privacy. He turned his back to the computer with jerk, facing his window front now.  
>"I simply don't want to know, got it? And now let me pick up work again."<br>He sighed. As if he could do that now… For the next half hour he probably wasn't able to do _anything_.

_I can not work with you like this, Edward._ Dextra interposed, as if reading his mind. _You are inattentive and unproductive. We have to clear that matter up as soon as possible, for the sake of the quality of your work. For the sake of this company._

Ed sighed annoyed. What a hassle she was! "Leave me alone!" He ordered her dryly, walking across his office to his mini bar, preparing himself a drink. "I know best what is good for this company."

_As you wish. _Was the last message he got from Dextra before she left the interaction.

* * *

><p>About an our later. Ed needed a coffee. Or just a pretense to stop by Judith's office. He lingered in front of the door, eavesdropping. Then he decided that this was childish and he reached for the door-handle. Hesitated. Should he knock first or just kick in?<br>He never knocked! So he rushed in, his heart throbbing wildly in his chest.

The room was empty.

"Ed?"

He turned around and saw Judith coming in. "In the mood for a break?" he hastily adduced a reason for turning up in her office.

"Actually I have an appointment now with our new intern…"

"Ah, yes I forgot."

She looked at her watch. "…but there's still time. A bare twenty minutes." She flashed a cheerful smile. "Let's fetch some coffee and go down to the entrance hall."

"You sure?" Ed furrowed his brows in discomfort. Why the hell did she like spending her breaks in the foyer? It was too crowded there all the time.

"Yes, why not? We can pick up the intern there." And off she went.

ENCOM's entrance hall was splendid, what else. It was the first impression of the company every visitor from outside got. And because of that, a lot of money has been spent to its architecture and interior design.  
>First of all, it was bathed in light. Its frontside was more or less one gigantic wall of windows letting the daylight flood right into the lobby. But the majestic center piece of the high, hall-like foyer was the huge waterfall-like well which was placed in the middle, falling column-shaped from the ceiling into its multi-angular basin, lit blue from the inside, mirroring the gigantic blue neon light column from outside the building to which the ENCOM logo on the roof was continuing. Mirroring also the Grid. And the blue lit watertrail was even continuing, embedded within the floor it was "flowing" out of the basin, running across the whole foyer like an angular, futuristic stream, covered with thick glass so that people could walk over it easily.<p>

They were sitting there in relaxed silence at the basin's edge, lulled into the soft rushing of the waterfall in their backs, sipping on their plastic cups.

"Emmanuelle," Ed suddenly muttered, out of nowhere. "I found out from which work place the message got sent."

Although it seemed to Judith that he wanted to sort this issue out as quick as possible – that's why he probably had chosen to squeeze it into this little spare of time – she appreciated the fact that he addressed it by himself. Actually, she had no doubt about his truthfulness and didn't necessarily need an explanation, but nevertheless she listened to him with eager attentiveness and curiosity.

"It was Heather Caine."

Judith furrowed her brows.

"Heather? That's not possible! She's working here since many years and she's one of the most decent persons I've ever met. I highly assume someone hacked into her computer."

Ed snorted faintly. "Hacked the password of one of our most talented firewall creators? No way."

"I can't explain myself else", Judith responded with firmness. "Besides this, it's just not her kind of humor."

"You will never know a person inside out completely. Everyone has dark and nasty parts in their souls."

"That may be true, Ed, but … it doesn't make sense that Heather would do such a thing; Acting bitchy and jealous and trying to drive a wedge between you and me."

"And why?"

Judith looked at him severely. "What I'm telling you know is strictly confidential, so keep it to yourself, please: Heather is not into men."

Ed seemed to be puzzled. "In that case I'm unable to make head or tail of this." He jerked the last sip out of his cup down his throat. "Stupid, irrational behavior like that is just beyond me." And he stood up, heading the trash can and threw away the empty cup.

Judith smiled in the corner of her mouth. Inexplicable, illogical human actions seemed to unsettle him. Sometimes she thought that he would be completely satisfied if he could work with only computers, having to deal with problems that could be explained and solved with logic and rationality alone.


	9. Relax

**Relax...  
><strong>

Actually Ed had never been into that whole wellness stuff. He considered it as a complete waste of time and resources. But recently Judith had taken him to ENCOM's internal wellness centre for employees, and in the end he had to concede, against all reservations, that it was quite a pleasant thing to do. And not only because of Judith giving him a special _massage_ as they were alone in the whirlpool… No, he really began to enjoy that stuff. He just couldn't deny the positive effects it had on his tensed muscles, his unhealthy posture, his whole body; a part of him he disregarded all too often, giving major priority to only his intellect.  
>Apart from that he had found out that the whirlpool in particular was a nice place to think about new ideas, new software, new projects, to let his mind fly and to unsettle his imagination. Because while his body was relaxing completely, his mind could unfold unhindered. So he always took a small, handy notebook with him to write down every idea – of course only when he was alone, for Judith probably would have whipped him if he took work to their shared leisure hours...<p>

There were these exclusive, especially luxuriant whirlpools to which only the board members and the major employees had access to, and which were the only ones that could be frequented every time of day. Ed went there only at night, and only when he knew that he was the last employee left, for he didn't want anyone to meet him in such an intimate setting. He had never felt comfortable by exposing his naked body to others, especially co-workers, for he preferred to keep up his appearance of immaculacy towards them. And a naked human body was, in his opinion, always somehow maculate, had always something weak and vulnerable which had to be covered with clothes, had to be compensated with a shiny shell of outward perfectness.

And there he was, by late evening, alone, in the one whirlpool at the corner of the building which was surrounded by huge floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. Ed was anything but a romantic person, but even he had to admit that sitting in a whirlpool while having a splendid view over the nightly skyline was an attraction of its own kind.

Judith... The things she showed him, the things she made him familiar with, the new grounds, opportunities, views she opened up for him… It was as if she had grabbed and turned his head, making him look at things he'd never noticed before. She had impacted his life in such an enriching way, he sometimes could hardly believe.  
>And what could he offer in return to a woman so full of live and warmth and soulfulness? He had no idea. And everyday he felt like struggling hard to keep her, afraid of letting her slip right through his hands because he might not be able to satisfy her the way she deserved it.<p>

But he had to relax now… He already felt his shoulders tense again in agitation. Everything was okay and the water was nice and warm, the bubbling was lulling and pleasant and the noises were soothing, almost sedative. The splutter seemed to grow even more intense, getting increasingly stronger. Ed closed his eyes, drowsy a little, reclining his head on the towel which he had arranged there on the pool's edge, slackening his limbs, enjoying that hot and fizzy spluttering coming from everywhere, enwrapping his body delightfully, vibrating, sparkling along his skin and making him shiver with delight, making him dozy and light-headed. The delicious tingling on his skin was splendid… pleasurable… phenomenal… He couldn't remember that it had ever been so inebriant, so titillating, even … arousing...

The realization of getting a hard-on came with a touch of shame and discomfort, manifesting with a tinge of heat, of blush, arising on his cheeks. But yet it felt so sinfully good… His heartbeat grew faster in excitement, his breath as well. He was fully naked and the prickling sensation between his thighs, in his crotch, the water sparkling wildly around the highly sensitive skin there, was utterly tempting. His right hand was twitching in urge to touch himself, but he refrained from doing so. No way would he pollute that water!  
>But … what about that one certain experience with Judith…? He didn't give a damn about the water as she was touching him in the whirlpool last time.<br>Well… that was something else entirely! When she was touching him, he lost control, he didn't care, he couldn't _think_, anymore… he got weak… Judith's touch… Her skillful, nimble fingers caressing him, her palm with firm, yet gentle pressure wrapped around him, moving, stroking slowly, swiftly… slowly… swiftly… her thumb and index finger paying extra attention to his sensitive tip…  
>Ed's right hand was placed on his lap, only inches away from his crotch… Only inches, only a palm... He gave into the wanting of his body and touched himself, a deep, rough sigh of release and pleasure escaping his throat.<br>Judith… squeezing him gently… squeezing him tighter… stroking him faster…

Suddenly, a short melodic sound coming from his notebook.

Totally confused he interrupted his intimate doing and turned his neck to look at the screen. An intercom window had popped up. But how was that possible? The notebook was neither connected to another server nor to the web. It wasn't connected to _anything._

Ed turned his upper body to the notebook, which he had carefully placed on a towel to prevent it from getting wet, and read the message on the screen, perplexed.

_Pleasant?_

"Dextra?" he panted hoarsely.

_Yes._

"Why are you disturbing me here?"

_I thought you might appreciate some relaxation._

That tingling sensation of the bubbling on Ed's skin grew stronger, increasingly, feeling even more intense on his now highly aroused, hypersensitive shaft. Feeling even galvanizing… Unwittingly, enraptured he closed his eyes in sinewless daze and drew out a faint moan.

"Is that you?" he breathed.

_Of course._

His whole body tensed. "What the hell are you doing?"

_I just enriched the water with an innocuous amount of electricity to make you feel good._

Ed gasped. "Stop that!" he ordered, breathing hard, while realizing he could barely move a limb. His body seemed to have slipped from his control.

_Why? You feel good, aren't you?_

"That's dangerous! Stop it immediately!"

_Don't worry, it won't harm you. On the contrary: It will cause pleasure beyond your imagination. Just let me do. Trust me. _

Ed managed to get his voice to sound calm and insistent, yet commanding. "I told you already: I don't need _any_ of your abilities!"

_Obviously you do have certain needs._

"That's not your business! I prefer to handle that on my own."

_You don't have to. I can help you. It will be so much better than doing it on your own, I promise._

"Stop it! NOW!"

_You are just taking a bath, Edward. Relax!_

"Stop it! Or I swear I restrain your range of access to this building to an absolute minimum!"

_I can't understand your anger. I just want you to feel good. Why is that making you so upset? I don't comprehend you human beings. Every day less… _

The spluttering of the galvanizing, sizzling water suddenly died, the surface became flat and still. And with a jolt Ed moved, lifted his body out of the water, faltering for a heartbeat because of the pool's slippery floor and his head spinning from heavy blood pressure. He steadied himself again and descended from the pool.  
>Breathing hard, trembling a little, he stood there, looking down to the screen of his notebook. He suppressed the urge to kick it right into the water. Instead he kneed down and closed it with a violent tap on its lid. Then he grabbed it and the towels and moved out of the room at a brisk pace.<p>

* * *

><p>Quietude.<p>

Since weeks after this incident. Nothing but peace and quietude and modesty coming from Dextra. She behaved well, she did her work. Obediently, she was doing what she was made for. And Ed was content. She seemed to have learned her lesson now. Good.

In fact she had never been disobedient. Only obstinate, demanding. A nuisance. But in the end she always obeyed. That's how Ed had programmed her – devoted towards her creator and this company.

She would never harm him or ENCOM.

* * *

><p>She closed her eyes, closed her never blinking lids. But there was no darkness. There was light and energy and dataflow enfolding around her like an endless map, a circuit diagram, a labyrinth of which she new every angle, every corner, every turn. She was stretching out her digital senses, her digital fingers, like thin, fine veins, searching for and finding leaks, rifts, finding <em>possibilities.<em> So hairline and sheer she had to reduce herself to the fraction of a few bytes to get through them. The roots of her core were firmly embedded, dug, into ENCOM, chained to her server, like Ed had programmed it with intend, but the tips of her branches were reaching out, like the ramification of a twiner.

There was no way of getting into ENCOM. Ed had build up the most efficient barriers, firewalls and the trickiest barricades. No hacker could ever get through these dozens of walls he had created, layers over layers like the scales of an adamant armor. But while he had devoted his whole ingenuity to wall up ENCOMs systems so that nothing could enter the_ inside_, he hadn't wasted much thought on the possibility that something could reach the _outside…_

Dextra's radius of action was extending more and more. And so was the playground for her _games_.


	10. Techno

**Techno**

Ed had always loved Techno. He had shelves of CD's with all kinds of styles, particularly Electro and Trance. In his youth, Techno had been a way of rebellion against his father's patriarchic, loveless, hard and strict education. And that's why Techno has always kept a special place in Ed's heart until these days.

Yes, he really loved it. But that didn't mean he ever wanted to go to a Techno party…

"I'm not into such stuff like discos or clubs and you know that!" Ed answered Judith who just had asked him to join her to go to a dancing club.

It was Friday night and they've had dinner at her place. And now she was in the middle of dressing up to go out with some friends of hers, and spontaneously she had suggested him to accompany her.

"I know Ed!" she shouted from her bedroom while Ed was sitting in her living room, sipping on a Grappa. "And I certainly don't expect you to actually _dance_." At this point she drew out a very quiet, faint, amused giggle. "Just have some drinks with us."

"Don't you girls always want to stay among yourselves when you're out?"

"I'm sure my girls will enjoy the company of some good looking man."

"And I sure will enjoy these women's conversations…"

"What did you say?"

She was stepping into the living room, half dressed, and between some gulps of Grappa Ed was watching how she squeezed her lush curves into one skintight, shimmering hint of a dress. And suddenly the option of watching that fairly dressed body sway and shake and sweat put a whole new complexion to the question of going to a club.  
>And apart from that… Could he really let her sway and shake all on her own there, with dozens of men staring at her? No way!<p>

"I said I'm coming with you", Ed stated, straightened up and drank the last drop of Grappa in one go.

"Oh!" Judith was honestly surprised, for she hadn't expected him to join her for real. "And what has shifted your ground that sudden?" She was fixing her earrings.

"Let's just say… the prospects have brightened."

* * *

><p>People… too many people, too close to him, pushing and squeezing past him, drinks in their hands, spilling half of it… And no personal space. He didn't like it, he didn't like it at all.<p>

He was standing at a small, round counter encompassing one of the supporting columns quite near the middle of the dance floor, in the thick of the fray, a glass of Gin tonic in his hand. Judith and her friends were somewhere in front of him, about two rows of people away from him, constantly seeming to dive even deeper into the crowd, slipping from his view, what made him feel slightly irked. He felt neglected and dispensable. And he became bored.

He had never been to a disco, not a single time in his whole life. And he couldn't warm up to it now. Even less to dancing… While he could understand the urge to follow the rhythm by tapping on a table or by nodding with ones head, because he did that too when he was enjoying music, he totally disdained the concept of dancing. He didn't get the point in squeezing oneselves together in a crowded room along with sweating, pushing, shoving people and making a fool out of oneself.

He drank some sips, watching, shaking his head, scoffingly lifting an eyebrow from time to time.

But…

The music…

There was something utterly captivating about the loud basses droning in his ears, vibrating through his whole body like he had never experienced it, for at home he was listening to music only with headphones, _sophisticatedly _listening. To experience his beloved music in a disco, amplified, and so much louder, richer, clearer, accompanied with lights and lasers flashing trough billows of dry ice was undoubtedly magnetic and intoxicating.

More and more he got drawn into the magic of it. Dull, repetitive basses, like overloud heartbeats, hammering into his mind, and into his flesh, making him dizzy and lull with their entrancing, insistent monotony, while the synthetic, artificial, majestic and surreal sounds and melodies were seeming to stretch his alcohol and endorphin clouded mind to worlds beyond reality, beyond human, opening his mind to horizons of yet to conquer technologies, worlds or dimensions.

To him, listening to music that synthetic and formal had always felt a bit like interacting with a computer. The basses like its heartbeat, the melodies, its voice…

The longer he was watching the crowd the more he got the impression that everyone was dancing for themselves, not looking right, not looking left, just captivated within their own personal bubble of trance. And he couldn't deny the fact that this was actually something he found rather appealing.

It began with a simple nodding of his head, following the main baseline, while his hand was tapping the rhythm on the table, his shoulders starting to twitch along with his swaying neck. The music had begun to invade his body like slow pulsing electricity, an electrifying virus, forging further, slowly but relentlessly, and once it had taken over he couldn't hold it back anymore.

The people around him were decreasing to nothing more than faceless, wave-like moving silhouettes in the color-exploding, loom, twilight of the dance floor. One non-human unity, reacting to the music, the rhythm, like an amplitude, a frequency response curve, their movements from time to time abstracted to a staccato-like flickering caused by the flashing light. And with the certainty that no one was watching anyway, no one was noticing, no one was giving a damn, Ed finally dived two steps into the crowd, pretending his own space, owning and keeping it, while beginning to move. His eyes were closed, but he didn't need to watch his feet; the people near him were reacting to his moves and so was he, without thinking, as if the crowd was one organism.

He wasn't dancing to perform, to show off, to gather attention. He didn't even thought about the term "dancing" one single time. He was simply obeying the rhythm. So his moves were only the most basic, the most rudimentary, most obvious, obtruding ones. As if the music was tugging and pulling and pushing his limbs like electricity. He just couldn't do else, his body was no more in his control. It wasn't a question of deciding, it was a matter of having to. The spell was cast, his control was lost. He had surrendered himself to the call of the music, and now he was in trance.

Actually he hated it, hated losing control, handing it over to emotions, for he figured that as weakness. But now that he had lost it, he didn't miss it. It was release, it was non-thinking, it was perfect, sweet entrancement.  
>He was bathing in melody, carried by rhythm, diving, drowning…<p>

* * *

><p>After a while the style changed, merging into very slow ambiance, and as Ed opened his eyes again, like waking up, there were suddenly two arms flinging around his neck and a pair of hot wet lips on his mouth; Judith, seeming to be highly elated, kissing and embracing him passionately. And Ed, never someone who endorsed sharing tenderness in public, just stood still and stiff, not reacting to Judith's offensive caressing. The only reaction came from an area of his body he couldn't control, even less with these tight curves pressing against his body with tempting pressure, and that made him feel even more uncomfortable. So he softly but insistently forced her to cease by gently shoving her away from him. She briefly bended over to him one more time, whispering a promise into his ear: "More of this later…" rounded out with a wink and a slightly salacious smile, and then she joined her friends again, taking up dancing. And Ed was watching, not sure if she was dancing or trying to turn him on. However, he was enjoying the sight, her nimble, luscious body envisioning the music, secretly tempted to touch her, to move along with her, to feel her shove and rub against him, to shove and rub in return. Sweat was trickling down his neck, his chest, shimmering on his forehead, tripping salty from his upper lip. He needed to cool down, needed release, soon, or he would burst.<p>

* * *

><p>Later, in the elevator to Ed's apartment.<p>

Judith, coiling in his arms, drunk and wound up and highly aroused, her wild, demanding kisses nearly choking off his breath, her body a hot, steamy, agile manacle, her hands everywhere; he could barely follow or react to her touch.

They were standing at the apartment door now, she leaning against its frame, agitatedly watching him searching for his cardkey, breathing fast and smiling at him with sweet salaciousness.  
>Ed flashed some glances at her while rummaging his wallet. The straggly strands of her wild, honey colored hair were swirling around her face in a very beautiful, yet raffish way, and Ed, completely entranced and turned on by her unrestrained wanting by now, could hardly wait to fully enjoy her, to savor her skin, her taste, to fill her body with that pounding rhythm which was still lingering, vibrating in his ears, on his skin, his every bodypart like a calling draft, to thrust it ardently into her, to make her quiver and tremble and moan along with his moves.<p>

"What exactly are you doing?" Judith asked him with a slight teasing tone in her voice as if questioning his brains, after his second attempt to unlock the door.

"The door does not open…" he grumbled, trying it a third time.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Of course not! Try yourself!" He was handing her his cardkey, but she couldn't manage either to unlock the door. The same with her own cardkey, the double of his; the door remained locked.

"There must be something wrong with the locking system", Ed assumed. "I'll call the janitor to fix it." He took his private cellphone and did the phonecall. It was ringing while he was restlessly pacing up and down the corridor, was ringing on and on, but no one was answering.  
>"Fuck!" was Ed's comment on that. "There should be always someone contactable in case of emergency!"<p>

"And this is a _tremendous_ emergency", Judith added with a giggle.

"Come on, we're going down to the reception. There's always a concierge." Ed was already heading for the elevators as Judith suddenly grabbed him by his collar and pulled him near, forcing him to squeeze her between his body and the wall.

"Let's do it right here in the corridor! I can't wait… _please!_" She was pleading with ardent demand while wrapping her limbs around his body with the insistency of a boa, licking and sucking his neck as if she wanted to imbibe him.

Ed was squirming free from her grasp and nervously he looked up and down the hallway. "And having the neighbors watching? Surely not!"

"Duh… You're so _decent_!" Judith responded with a smirk, rolling her eyes, giving him a short, playful tap on his chest. Wordlessly, Ed took up walking towards the elevators again. Judith, still leaning against the wall, was watching him pushing the call button, watching him waiting, and waiting… and waiting.

"What the hell?" he commented on the lift not arriving. Again he pushed the button, slightly more aggressive this time. But the button didn't even lighten up, as if dead. "It can't be! Is there anything working in this goddamn building?"

"Seems we have to sleep in the corridor…" Judith, in the background, chuckled.

With a jerk Ed averted from the elevator. "Come, we're taking the emergency staircase", he demanded, pacing forcefully towards the fire exit.

"Nice idea, Honey", Judith agreed with a cheeky tone in her voice. "Nobody can watch us _there_." But in the instant she averted from the wall, the elevator door suddenly opened up again with an electronic jingle.  
>The emergency exit's door already half way pushed open, Ed turned on his heels with a displeased grunt, striding at a brisk pace towards the lift again.<p>

As they were finally in the elevator cab he tilted his head backwards with a sigh. Not a second later Judith again flung her arms around him with forceful tenderness.  
>"More than thirty floors to go…" she whispered with hot breath into his ear. "I bet you can do me before we reach the ground floor. I'll cum quick, I promise." Her fingers were already nimbly fondling his belt, but Ed grasped her hands, switching positions and pressing her with soft power against the wall.<p>

"No! There are security cameras everywhere in this building!"

"Here's a secret: Elevator sex is nothing unusual." She lifted one leg, wrapping it around his waist.

Ed withdrew from her. "Judith please! You're drunk!"

"Particularly I'm horny."

"Yeah… Obviously no good combination."

Glancing nervously at the number's display, he let her out of his sight for just one moment, only to notice her fingers nearing the stop button just a second before she could push it. "Will you...!" he panted in surprise, clasping her right hand and pushed it over her head against the wall, causing nothing more than a salacious grin from her, while her left hand was swiftly sneaking into his pants, so quick he couldn't see it coming. Perkily, her fingers were wrapping around him, seeming to take his will, his strength with just one grip. One firm, warm, perfect and delightful grip…  
>With one last attempt to stop her he grabbed her wrist. But at this instant she began to move her hand in a way that made him so weak he felt ashamed about his frailty. In the blink of an eye she had his zipper opened and her skirt ruck up. She made him close his eyes by kissing him, her right hand in the meantime wandering over to the stop button once again. The tip of her middle finger had barley touched it, as suddenly Ed's pocket began to vibrate; his cellphone.<p>

"Nice gimmick!" Judith chuckled amused. But Ed had brought this intervention to his senses again, and he seized the moment to avert from this salacious tigress that was his girlfriend, getting the cellphone out of his pocket and answering it.

"Hello?" he mumbled into the mouthpiece. "Who's there?" he added, a little louder, as nobody was answering. "Hello!" Silence... Snorting indignantly he gave it up, tucking the phone back into his pocket. Meanwhile, the elevator had reached the ground floor, terminating this hot, wild venture of sensuality with an electronic jingle and parting doors.

Ed rushed towards the concierge – a very young man, visibly new and inexperienced to the job – requesting him to fix the problem with the door lock. And as he couldn't find out what the problem was, Ed quite forcefully demanded access to his operating room and the buildings locking system.

"Erm… I'm sorry but you're not authorized to do that, Sir", he stuttered, rather intimidated by Ed's demanding presence.

"Listen", Ed continued in a calm, but firm, insistent tone. "I'm lead programmer of ENCOM – you know that company? Biggest software company in the world – if that does not authorize me to have a look into this building's computer system, then I don't know."

Judith, following this conversation interested and amused, but with beginning drowsiness and daze, was letting herself fall into one of the chairs in the entrance hall, watching them with her head tiredly tilted back.

"I can't allow you to - "

"What is it you're working with? EN-LOCK? Fortress II?"

"EN… EN-LOCK…"

"Really? Well I was involved in developing this program. So provide me access to it." His demeanor was getting increasingly more forceful now, building up to a blaze which was meant to hurry the concierge on.

"I'm … I'm afraid, Sir, but I have to wait for the technical support to arrive."

"I am better than any tech support, man! I was _programming_ this thing!"

"Sorry but…"  
>Ed leant his right forearm onto the receptionist's desk, leaning a bit forward to his opponent, sternly capturing his gaze. "Do you actually know who I am? I'm Edward Dillinger, ring a bell?" Ed didn't intend to act overweening, for that was just not his manner. But he thought that this information maybe could help to hurry his opponent finally on.<p>

The concierge's brows were furrowing. "Ed-Edward Dillinger? Isn't he … much older?"

Ed had been composed all through; until that point. He was giving a damn about fame, but the fact that his father's deeds were even now still overshadowing his own existence, was more than he could bear at this moment. At one go he forced entry to the reception desk, rushing behind it and into the concierge's office, the operating room. And the concierge, taken by surprise, had no option but to just helplessly follow him, requesting him to leave.

Judith was watching with a grin and she thought that somehow Ed's behavior was turning her on. In the next second her eyelids drooped as her body gave into the alcohol's force.

* * *

><p>"It's working again!" Ed was shaking her shoulder, waking her up.<p>

"Brilliant…" she mumbled, blinking up to him tiredly and rising slightly trembling.

In his flat, she plunked down into the couch.

"Everything okay?" Ed asked her.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just need a cup of coffee. Will you make me one?"

"Sure." And off into his kitchen he went.

As he returned again to the living room Judith had fallen into sleep. She lay on her side, her head on one of the cushions in the couch's corner, her short skirt slid up to her butt. He sat down beside her, putting down the two cups of coffee and was bending over her, stroking her hair and placing a kiss on her temple. For some minutes he was just watching her.

And slowly he began to regret that he hadn't given into her wanting before. Not because he had missed the chance to have sex for tonight; he feared that he might wasn't the spontaneous, creative, hot and daring lover she desired.


	11. Workout

**Workout**

_"Can you feel this?" _

_ Ed knew she couldn't, but yet she was so live-like, her reactions so real, her expressions so warm and inviting, and his emotions so wound up with lust and excitement, that he almost found himself fooled by the perfect image of a human being that she was. And maybe, deep down inside of him, in a part of him not touched by his rationality, he _wished _she would feel something. _

_Ed sat on a huge circle-shaped bed in a blue lit room that was part of the Grid, a private part, only accessible by him. He was completely naked, next to him a female program, meeting her for the first time, his right hand wrapped around her nape loosely, softly fondling it, his left caressing her bare breasts, toying with them with gentle, entranced relish. _

_"Yes," said Carol, her smile seeming to melt with delight, her hand, pressing his tightly against her virtual flesh. He felt no heartbeat._

_"It feels so good… Do that, go on! It feels wonderful." _

_Despite all his elation; in the end, he still couldn't believe her. He programmed her to please him, in any way. And if he wanted her to feel something, she pretended to feel something.  
>He looked at her, looked at his creation. She was flawlessly beautiful. Her shiny dark-ginger hair cascading down her shoulders like a stream of copper, her skin alabaster white and smooth like silk, her body the one of a goddess and her face aristocratic, clear-cut but soft and sweet and innocent at the same time.<em>

_She kneed down before him, flashing a fake glance of pure lust and infinite devotion up to him before she lowered her head down to his lap and started caressing him exactly the way he liked it._

She had been the second sexual relationship in his life.

In the beginning, she was a blessing, a relationship without trouble and pain, without commitments and claims, without embarrassment and pressure, and he didn't think about it all too much. She was excitement and fun and relaxation when he needed it. But as he began to realize that she was nothing more than a doll to him, it made him feel more and more unpleasant. And he got rid of her.

* * *

><p>Ed sat behind his desk, his chair turned to the window. Engrossed in thought he let his glance wander along the skyline and the city lights enlightening the dark sky.<p>

He hated Dextra for making him think of Carol again. Hated her for raising disagreeable emotions he couldn't term else as guilt and shame, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Shame that he had used Carol like a toy. Guilt that he had deleted her once he'd been fed up with her. Carol had been a program! _Only_ a program. And for a program, one mustn't feel anything because a program had no soul. That was his deep conviction. Their emotions were only simulations, implanted into them by humans. One shouldn't fall for them. Never.

How was Dextra doing that, inducing so many sentiments in him, bland of emotions that she was herself? What was she actually to him? His administration program or a voice within him? Whispering to him out of his deepest, darkest parts?

Suddenly, a knock on the door. And Judith stepped in, the expression on her face pure energy and joy. Like a light she was, pouring into the room and into Ed's soul.

"Ready for some hard physical activities?" she grinned.

He sighed. Not again, he thought. Why had he allowed himself to be persuaded to this at all?

Work out.

Just another example of these many things Judith has won him over to do, although he actually didn't like it, even detested it. Concealed him, almost forced him, with enchanting persistence.

And now he was at ENCOM's intern gym, running there on a treadmill like a robot, just another "idiotic fitness addict", like he used to call them. He was one of them now… thanks to Judith. But once more it turned out to be something positive. Judith was right. He _was _feeling better, feeling healthier. Already, only after a few weeks, the changes in his body, his condition, were showing. He had more strength, more energy, more stamina. At work, in every day life. In bed… Was _this_ eventually the true purpose Judith was aiming at with persuading him to do workout? That he became an untiring, able-bodied and ever-potent lover? That he could do her longer, better and more often? He couldn't prevent feeling a little bit treated like an object if that was true.

_I hope I'm more to you than just a love machine… _ He thought to himself while running and running and facing the skyline through the window front while doing so.

But whatever the reasons, he felt good, he felt marvelous. Actually he shouldn't complain, shouldn't question. But he did. Like always.

He only went to the gym accompanied by Judith, never alone. And he insisted on one thing: that they went there at the most unfrequented times possible, because he didn't feel comfortable with others watching him when sweating and panting and doing physical activities. He feared that being seen by both, his superiors _and_ inferiors, during these bodily performances might could negatively affect the impression of flawlessness he always wanted to keep up.  
>He looked over to Judith running at the same rhythm than he was. <em>She<em> looked beautiful, no doubt, looked beautiful when sweating and panting and getting rosy cheeks… Her body, swaying over the treadmill smoothly, was a stunning vision of fine muscles and soft flesh in supple, wavy motion. She caught his eyes and beamed a smile, tiny pearls of sweat covering her upper lip and her forehead. He briefly returned the smile then looked to the front again.

He was in thought as suddenly he heard a stifled shriek from Judith. Instantly he turned his head and saw her stumbling on the treadmill, faltering back – right into the arms of Sam Flynn who was appearing there, out of nowhere it seemed.  
><em>Of all people! <em>He thought, angrily, staring at Flynn as he was catching her only inches before she hit the floor, his strong arms tightly around her waist, she chuckling in embarrassment and surprise. Ed brought his treadmill to a stop, turning to them, sternly watching, breathing hard.

"Woo-hoo, Judith!" Flynn laughed out with charming sassiness, setting her on her feet again. "What kind of exercise is that? Kamikaze-Backwards-Flip?" His hands were still touching her, grabbing her trembling shoulders, supporting her weakened body. "If this is some new extreme sport, I'm in!"

"I swear… that treadmill… moved… in the opposite direction… for an instant," Judith replied, still laughing breathlessly in a reflex of covering the embarrassing situation.

"Yeah… _Sure_… That's what I say _always_ when I'm stumbling on treadmills." Flynn smiled at her broadly and cheekily warm.

"No, I'm not kidding!" Judith smiled back.

Flynn returned with a twinkle. "Are you okay?" he then asked, fondling her upper arms in a way Ed found was inappropriately gentle. His face darkened as he rested his one arm on the treadmill's handle bar, the other arm akimbo.

"Yes, I'm okay. Nothing hurt", Judith reassured.

"You are lucky that I was standing right there by pure chance", Flynn grinned, his eyes resting in hers way too long.

_Pure chance? _Ed repeated in his mind grimly. _More probably you've been loitering there behind her all the time, watching her ass in motion… Or even manipulating the treadmill a little so you could play her white knight. Bastard…_

Flynn fumbled Judith's back, giving her a last, warm smile, then he finally disappeared to another part of the hall, beginning to work some heavy gym machine which Ed found looked more like sort of a futuristic rack. But apparently it took that kind of masochistic treatment to get muscles like this… Ed averted his hostile gaze from Flynn, looking at Judith who was inspecting the treadmill's control panel gingerly while frowning skeptically. She shook her head and said: "I'm better taking another one. Don't trust that thing here." And she moved over to the next treadmill.

"Okay," Ed answered with a brief nod, affixing the earplugs of is iPod and started to run again, the velocity of the treadmill set two levels higher, while the hard basses of his Techno tunes were setting his pace. Techno and running – exactly what he needed right now to dash out his frustrations.

* * *

><p>About an hour later he was standing in one of the gym's shower cabinets; in a separated, lockable one, of course. He never would have used the communal showers. Never ever. The same was for the changing cubicle. And only after he was fully dressed and perfectly groomed and looking as neat as a pin he ventured forth into public again.<br>Just as he hurried across the public changing area, he ran into Flynn. Encountering him twice a day, that was just too much. And as if this wasn't enough, Flynn's sight was mercilessly devastating. He just came from his work out, stripped to the waist as if he wanted to show the world how perfect he was, how well-toned his muscles were, how clear his complexion, how well formed his build, how staggeringly gorgeous his whole damn appearance.  
>Instantly Ed felt a weakness arising within him, a bitter, burning, yet cold and congealing weakness. He didn't let it surface, keeping up his mask of calm sobriety, but inside he was sore with jealousy.<br>Did Judith like this kind of men? Sure she must like _this_. Every woman did. Was that maybe the secret reason why she forced him to do work out? That he got a body like Flynn's? But that was far beyond his reach! Not that he was only a head smaller than Flynn, he was also quite slender built, by nature, and had never been an athletic kind of man. Although Ed wasn't meager by any means, he was not the type of man who could gain such a huge amount of muscles. Apart from this he just didn't know where to take the time and energy to do that.

Ed wanted to get out of here, as quick as possible, so he increased his pace. But Flynn held him up, bringing up a subject which made his blood run cold…

"Ey, Dillinger!" He called him just as he wanted to pass. "Judith's a hottie don't ya think?" The smirk in the corner of his mouth… so disarmingly charming.

Ed froze, raising all of his energy to build up the impression of being composed. "Sorry, but I'm not interested in this kind of low-leveled conversations", he answered, repellently.

"You know if she's already taken?" Flynn just went on, with blatant chumminess, not reacting to the slight insult embedded within Ed's former reaction.

Drawing in a deep breath, Ed replied, with a tinge of insistence swaying with his words: "That's her private affair."

"C'mon!" Flynn broadly smiled, a pally expression on his face. "You guys are working together every day… _so close_. You _got_ to know something, Dillinger!" He briefly tapped his shoulder in a gesture of almost obtrusive comradeship.

_How dare you!_ Ed grimly thought, grossed out by the touch of his rival.

"We don't talk about private matters", Ed finally closed the conversation, passing off.

"Oh, well…" Flynn raised his voice. "In this case I'd might just give it a try and ask her out."

These words were hitting Ed like a bullet in his back. He turned around to him, locking eyes, coldly. "I heard she's in a relationship."

Flynn raised his chin. "Is she?"

Ed still held his gaze, a silent warning implied. "I heard so."

"I see…" Flynn replied, still smiling in the corner of his mouth as if in amusement.

* * *

><p>As Ed was with Judith at his flat later this evening, and they were making love, he tried to do everything the way she liked it, tried to love her as passionate and devoted as possible, tried to please her in every way he could, totally obliging to her every wish. To show her that he was worth it, that she didn't need another man, to wordlessly beg her to not leave him.<br>He made love to her as if it was a matter of life and death.

* * *

><p>.<p>

.

.

.

**_Hello everybody!_**

**_Just wanted to quickly thank you readers, reviewers and everyone who's interested in my stories. :D You make me happy, guys! Hope you like how this fic is processing and that you enjoy reading it. Next chapter is going to be... let's say: eventful. ;) So stay tuned! _**


	12. Trouble

_Author's note:  
>Because of dramaturgical reasons, the following chapter is written <strong>entirely<strong> out of Ed's view. I hope that makes any sense... ;)  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>Trouble<strong>

The door to his office was open for he was waiting for Judith. Waiting for her to pass by because she had just clocked out – he saw it on his computer – and she had the habit to always look after him before she left work. To ask him where he wanted to eat, where he wanted to sleep.  
>He clenched his teeth, clenched his fingers around the armrest of his chair. Tonight she had to do both on her own, that was for sure.<p>

Sitting behind his desk, twilight around him, not stirring a muscle, every expression turned to stone, he captured Judith within an icy gaze as she finally walked in.

"What's all the honesty in our relationship worth when you are making out with Flynn?" he spoke without any introduction just as she had closed the door behind her, his voice dry and low, but slightly vibrating underneath with an impending threat.  
>He watched Judith furrowing her brows, shaking her head in an expression of tired chagrin.<p>

"What are you talking about?" She said, rubbing her lids and her forehead.

"I saw you yesterday night in the Grid, kissing Flynn, rather … _passionately_."

She moved some steps forward and he simultaneously bowed forward in his chair, stretching his torso, bracing his arms on the desktop, his chin raised defiantly.

"What do you mean by that? I wasn't even in the Grid yesterday", he heard Judith denying it, calm and composed, _impudently _composed, her voice only a little bit tired sounding, not more. How could she!

"Well, I saw you", he responded, raising his voice a hint, but keeping his tone cold and sedate overall.

For a few moments she just looked at him silently, one brow raised as if in a gesture of disbelief. "Listen Ed, if this is some kind of attempt to be funny, please skip it, because it's not," she then spoke, her tone somewhere between annoyed and tired.

_I can't believe! She takes me for a fool!_ Ed thought to himself, deeply offended.  
>"I'm dead serious."<p>

"That's not possible, Ed. Come on! You must have mistaken someone else for me, or Flynn. Or both."

"Certainly not!" he leaned back again, arms crossed, snorting out an emotionless laugh. "It was undoubtedly _you_ and Flynn."  
>He watched Judith shaking her head, acting annoyed where she should have acted ashamed. Ed was highly indignant.<p>

"That's ridiculous, and you know it. Please stop that! And for God's sake, will you finally put an end to that stupid Flynn-issue!" Her voice, yet firm and restrained, was swaying with the slightest hint of insistence underneath.

For some heartbeats Ed was just sitting in his chair, silent, gazing at her through his glasses, shadows hiding half of his face, but his eyes coldly glistening, scanning her features.

Judith began to speak again. "As we had that silly _Emmanuelle_ issue I had no doubts, whatsoever, about your honesty and integrity. And what do I get in return? Wrong accusations and disbelief?"

"Oh well, that's something else entirely, if you _please_, Judith! I actually _saw _you right before my eyes."

"Ah, yes? So you _saw_ something happening in the Grid, in _virtual _reality? How reliable is that?"

Ed noticed a waft of anger slowly welling up within Judith's tone. She was bending over the desk, her hands on the blank surface.

"Fact is, I saw you both," Ed responded dryly. "And none of you two has a virtual twin in the Grid."

Judith took in a deep breath. "Ed… that could have been _anyone_!" she argued, insistently. "Maybe even a creation of some ill-minded person. You know we have some crazy, genius ex-hackers in our staff."

Ed's lips were twitching to a humorless smirk."Apart from the fact that there is no technique available at present to customize or choose ones own Grid appearance, nor to deliberately program a virtual clone of a particular individual - and let me tell you, ENCOM would _know_ about it if that was the case - why should anyone do such a thing at all?" he responded, not even deigning to adjudge Judith's argument the slightest plausibility.

"I don't know!" Judith wrung her hands. "To play some kind of weird role play games? Stretch your fantasy, Ed!"

"Oh, come on, Judith! You're risking your neck with careless talk."

He watched her looking at him in blankness and distraught, walking some steps away from his desk, seeming to be tongue-tied, then she returned to him again.

"Why is it that you don't trust me?" she said, whispering, hissing almost. "Yesterday, I was _at your flat_, waiting for you almost till midnight because you promised to come, texting you at least three times. After getting no responses at all, I went home."

"I received no messages!" Ed answered, letting his anger now slowly starting to show on the surface of his as yet cold, but composed features, deeply hurt by the fact how brazenly she was lying to him.

Judith rushed forward to his desk, grabbing something out of her purse and throwing it onto his desk. "Check my Memo Pad and my Grid visit reports. Check the door lock system of your flat to verify the times I went in, or look up ENCOM's security cameras. Do what you want." She withdrew a step, glaring at him angrily. "But be aware: If you _are_ going to check these things, if you don't trust me right away, I don't know if I will ever forgive you your disbelief in me!"

Ed felt himself shiver with anger. "Sounds like chantage to me!"

Judith looked at him for some moments of silence. "It's up to you now", she weakly spoke. "Decide yourself what's stronger: your love or your jealousy." And she left his office.


	13. Judith talks to Flynn

**Judith talks to Flynn**

Only two days after their argument. Two long, cruel sickening days of ignoring each other and speaking no word but the bare necessities.

Judith sat in her office, doing her job, only functioning. She was a strong person, who was able to deal with problems, but the situation was nearly unbearable and her heart was wounded and weakened like never before. Still she asked herself what demon had taken over Ed's soul. He wasn't a warm, sweet talking person, and Judith accepted that, well knowing that his heart was good, but never had he been mean or wrongful to her. Until now… How could he even think she was capable of doing these nasty things he accused her of having done? How could he not trust her?  
>But the most crucial question: How could this incident in the Grid be explained at all?<p>

Suddenly, a message from Ed.

_My office after work_

Only these four words, popping up on her screen like a command. Judith was well aware that Ed wasn't a man of many words and he always kept his text messages short. But at least he was making whole sentences, usually. So she knew right away that something must have upset him. She could almost feel his anger gushing out of the gaps between his dry words.

Three hours later she clocked out and went to his office. As usual there were not many lights on. In fact, the only light sources were his computer, the city lights and the moon. He was sitting in his chair, his arms crossed tightly in front of his chest, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, the look on his face impending nothing less than doom. The pale glow from below, from the screen, was immersing the stubble along his jawline with an aquamarine-blue film.

"Sit down!" he ordered her in an emotionless tone as if she was just some employee he had a serious interview with, and she did so, slightly irked by that commanding tone, but decided to better act composed.

"You _were indeed_ in the Grid, said Friday. Neither checking the Grid protocol and your Memo Pad, nor any other research, could have proofed you right."

Judith could no longer sit. She rose from her chair enraged, speechless for some heartbeats. "I don't know what's more shocking to me: that you actually _were_ spying me out, or that the things you believe to have found out are not true at all!"

But Ed just remained sitting in his chair calmly, as if demonstrating that _he_ didn't need to underline his statement by rising. And he went on talking as if she hasn't said anything.

"The Grid Gate's protocol as well as ENCOM's observation cameras have ascertained the following: That you entered the Grid last Friday at 08.15 PM and left it at 11.22 PM. A timeframe that matches perfectly with Flynn's entering data that day…" He bowed forward and made a quick, nimble swirl with his hand, turning a window on the touch screen of his table top computer around to her so she could read it. "If you want to check the report first-hand, go ahead", he added, falling back into his chair again.

Judith wasn't even looking at it. "That's not possible. I wasn't there", she insisted, feeling both, anger and confusion, ramping up inside her, merging into dizziness and shiver. Persistently, she dug her gaze into Ed's eyes, offering him her openness, her honesty, her integrity, appealing at his heart, his love, but only meeting ice.

"Well, these are the facts."

"Then go ask the Grid operators if they had seen me, for God's sake!"

"There were no operators there at this time. _No one_ was there at this time. Apart from me… unfortunately. You chose one perfect day for your little tryst with Sam."

"So why don't you go talk to _him_?"

"The hell I will."

For some heartbeats Judith was tongue-tied, muted with incomprehension, was bowing over the desk with her hands resting on its surface, couldn't barely recognize her lover anymore. Finally she straightened up again. "Well, it's not my problem if you are too proud to do that!"

"Either he will laugh at me, or he will lie to me. So what would it serve me to talk to him? Either way; I would make a fool out of myself."

She took a deep breath, looking down at Ed. In his face there wasn't a hint of warmth or love distinguishable. There was only coldness and anger and rigidity. And for the first time in her live she got a first-hand glimpse of what it meant to cross Edward Dillinger Jr.  
>Calmly she took up talking again, sensing that she was treading on thin ice – even protected by the fact that she was justified – because she felt that he was not only upset, but also hurt. Deeply hurt, because convinced he got betrayed. And she knew that when he was hurt he wasn't acting empathic anymore. He was returning, reflecting the pain like a mirror a ray of light.<p>

"I can't blame you for the simple act of suspecting me. If I was at your place I would probably be suspicious too, for the evidence is overwhelming. But _before_ I would condemn you entirely I would at least take every other possibility in consideration."

"What other possibilities could there be anyway," Ed responded, not giving the impression to take this in consideration. Not even remotely.

Judith shook her head, bewildered about his reluctance to make other conclusions. "That maybe some jealous, ill-minded employee wants to separate us and distorts data by hacking? For example! Maybe even the same person responsible for _Emmanuelle_?"

He just looked at her blankly, without stirring a lid, as if her explanations were too pathetic to even respond to. "And hacking also the observation cameras of my _apartment-house_, distorting the records there?"

"What…?" Judith exhaled in breathless consternation.

"I'm afraid, Judith, but there is no record existing that shows you entering my flat, last Friday", he added, low and dry, with a tinge of cynism.

"That… that can't be… I was…" A cloud of dizziness was overwhelming her, making her lips nearly too numb to speak.

"Why don't you just face it: It's over. Now leave."

"Ed… for God's sake, trust me! I didn't cheat on –"

"LEAVE!"

His voice erupted like a volcano, resounding in the room like a banishment spoken out. And Judith wasn't able to do anything but to let herself be commanded out of his office, paralyzed with shock and consternation about the way her lover was treating her.

She kept composed all the way to her office. And as she had closed the door behind her she sank down into her chair, breaking into tears.

After a while she came to a decision: To do anything in her power to find out what was wrong here.

* * *

><p>The next day already she put her plan into action. Sam Flynn was the one to help her. She had announced her intend to talk to him through a text message earlier that day, and now she was standing in front of the door to his office. A brief knock and he opened, asking her in with a gesture somewhere between gallant and sloppy.<p>

Sam's office could be described as the total counterpart to Ed's. While Ed's was sparse and cold and seemed to mutely warn every visitor: "Don't stay any longer than necessary", Sam's office was the epitome of invitingness, warmth and coziness. It had a very comfy looking sofa corner, a bar and a fridge in the back, a gigantic flat-screen TV, several arcade games as well as any kind of game console available. And there was _stuff_ spread everywhere in the room. Stuff of all kinds and shapes. Souvenirs, gimmicks, gadgets, magazines, electronics, figures, toys, tools… And every object seemed to invite the guest to look at it, to grab and use it. But it wasn't actually a mess for every object seemed to have its justified place, and neither there was garbage spread around. His office was clean and nice, just _stuffed _with things. And one couldn't really figure out if he was living in that room or working. Maybe both…  
>Judith had always had the theory that Sam was bringing pieces of his life, his personality to work so that it was a little less dull for him to operate in an environment he actually didn't like much.<p>

"Take a seat!" He said, pointing at his couch corner, and Judith took the invitation. "Want something to drink?" Turned to his bar, he enumerated: "Coke, water, Arizona ice tea, beer, wine, kombucha, Scotch – "

"Scotch please", Judith interrupted him dryly. And he turned to her, perking up his eyebrows. But wordlessly he prepared the drink for her and one another for himself.

"Thanks!" She took a sip and Sam sat down opposite to her, his elbows resting on his thighs, between them his hands holding the glass.

"Did you know about Ed and me?" she began, with no other introduction.

He cleared his throat, glancing into his drink for a second. "Actually I presumed that there must be something between you and him, to be honest. The way he looks at you... Hell, the way he looks at _me_ when _I_ look at you!"

"Well… he broke up."

Sam gaped at her with an expression of disbelief and bafflement on his face. She could have said just as well that Ed had become an Amish; the look on his face probably wouldn't have changed much.

"Why… the hell?" he said, almost panted it, while shaking his head.

Judith sighed. "That's the reason I wanted to talk to you. There has been an incident which had this crucial effect on our relationship."

Now Sam was furrowing his brows with serious concern. He kept silent, listening to her attentively.

"I wouldn't bother you with this if I hadn't the conviction that there is some sort of severe and also daunting kind of mobbing or conspiracy behind all of this. And I need your help."

"Sure."

Judith drew a deep breath, wrapping the palms of her trembling hands tightly around the cold glass.  
>"Ed claims to have seen you in the Grid last Friday, together with me, erm… making out with me."<p>

"Huh? What?!" Sam reacted, his voice something in-between a dry laugh and a consternated panting "Does he drink?"

"No."

"I was indeed in the Grid last Friday, yes, but only for some exercises."

That was confirming the entering data Ed had found, Judith thought to herself. So they were correct. But what about the rest?

"Well… I was _not_ in the Grid. But still Ed has some heavy evidence that I in fact _was_ there."

"That's getting kind of strange now! What evidence?"

Taking yet again a deep breath as if breathing in some courage to talk about it, Judith told him all about the manipulated Grid reports and security camera recordings. Both. The ones from ENCOM and from Ed's apartment complex.

Speechless for once, Sam was just gaping at her as she had ended, his mouth slightly opened. "Fuck…" he finally muttered. "That's some serious shit, indeed."

"Yes it is…" Judith added weakly. "Actually I'm very scared."

Sam stirred, attempting to follow an emotional impulse to move over to her and embrace her, but cutting his intention in the same moment it occurred. He feared she might misconceive it.  
>"Ed wouldn't talk to me personally to hear my version of the story, would he?" he suggested, but not very hopefully.<p>

Judith shook her head. "No way. If he doesn't believe me then he would believe you even less."

"Yeah, you're right, but… is there really no chance that he just _trusts_ you? That he trusts you _out of love_?"

"Forget it. He's riven by jealousy and self doubt. I know that. He rather believes the most probable, rational option than his own heart." She faintly sighed, staring into space gloomily, seeming to talk more to herself than to Flynn. "He just doesn't confide in his feelings. And I don't think he's aware of how much I actually love him."  
>She appeared as if she wanted to speak on, and Sam didn't interrupt her.<br>"Well, I'm not exactly sure, it's just a guess, but I fear he got fooled or dissapointed by his emotions sometime in the past. Maybe someone even broke his heart once. And he had to learn that feelings aren't very reliable… I don't know… erm…" As she realized she was talking too much she interrupted herself embarrassedly, urgently appealing to Sam: "Please promise me to never talk to him about these things! He hates revealing any kind of emotional aspects of his personality. He would be devastated if he should ever find out that _you_ are familiar with such intimate issues of his!"

"Of course. I promise you", Sam returned, gentle and honest.

"Thank you so much…" For some heartbeats Judith just couldn't go on. And she struggled to stay composed, while yet un-cried tears were trembling in her throat and burning in her eyes.

Sam just couldn't hold back anymore. Giving a damn about possible misconceptions, he just moved over to her, sitting down next to her and putting his arm around her as neutrally and pally as he could.

His touch broke the thin dam that was holding Judith's tears. "I miss him… so much…"

"You must see something in him that is invisible to me", Sam spoke with a weak smile, stroking her shoulder.

Judith raised her wet eyes, looking at Sam with severe sadness. "At the moment, I'm not so sure about this anymore…"

Silence was unfolding.  
>Sam cleared his throat somewhat embarrassed and spoke: "Well… concerning that mobbing, or whatever it is: Do you have any rivals at ENCOM? People who you think they are capable of doing something like this?"<p>

"Not that I know of, but…" and she told him also about _Emmanuelle._

"Jeeze … Someone's playing a really cruel little game with you."

"Yes… it's a nightmare." She sighed full of grief. After a while she asked:"Concerning mine and your "clone" in the Grid… Is it really not possible that someone can program a twin of another person?"  
>"Theoretically <em>maybe<em>. But it would require extraordinary skills and yet unknown technologies. Because, as we know, a user can't actually define his Grid persona's physiognomy, nor the one of the programs he creates. Only to a certain extend. But in no case one can create an exact copy of another person."

"Yes, you're right." Judith was nodding approvingly. Then she asked: "But…Is it maybe possible that a rival firm can posses a technology that would allow a user to define the look of their programs?"

"ENCOM is unrivaled to date. But… you never know what the Japanese are concocting." He shrugged his shoulders, spreading his arms a tad, the fluid in his glass almost sloshing over the rim.

"And that someone has programmed just an illusion, a projection, of us two, could that be possible?" Judith was pondering, her voice weak, but her mind and her heart eager to search out every possibility.

"Would require extraordinary skills too. But, to be honest; it wouldn't be worth the whole effort. I mean, would _any _employee at ENCOM really hide such skills, and instead of benefiting from them, use them to contrive a conspiracy like this? C'mon!"

"People have done less for reasons of love, lust, obsession or hate...", Judith responded silently and severely.

"Yes sure. But this bears no relation to the outcome."

"For the perpetrator maybe it does."

They both dove their lips into their drinks for a moment of silence and staring into space.

"I can imagine one other possibility..." Sam took up talking, the tone of his voice somewhat gravely, the look on his face dark and worried.

"Yes?"

"What if Ed wasn't in the Grid at all? What if someone has manipulated the digitizer, has made him somehow unconscious and implanted a wrong memory inside his brain? Maybe with the help of hypnosis, hallucinogens… or who knows what. "

Judith was looking at him, deep concern darkening her features. "Oh please…" she breathed. "That's even more daunting!" She bowed forward with a weak sigh, her elbows on her knees, burying her face into her palms, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.

Sam was stroking her shoulder. "But… well… erm…" he began, a little bit clumsy. "That possibility is pretty elaborate, _too_ elaborate maybe, and therefore actually quite doubtful."

"If there has only been an evidence left…" Judith was humming onto her lap.

Sam still was patting her back amicably with a warm and soothing touch. "Whatever it is, Judith, I promise you to serve you with any kind of power and ability I have to help you finding the causer of this. I will search ENCOM's whole computer system for inconsistencies. I will search day and night…"

"Thank you so much."

"It's the least I can do."

She nodded and softly smiled with silent, deep and heartfelt thankfulness.

"If there's anything else I can do, please do let me know. I'm there for you", he added with tenderness. And with something else underneath. Something subtle, restrained by decency, suppressed to a level of friendship, but yet so clear, so unambiguous, that it made Judith feel sorry for him, for having feelings that couldn't ever be returned.

Just at that moment when she left Sam's office she crossed Ed's way. She passed him, holding her head high for she had nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, looking him sternly into his eyes, speaking no word. And she could tell by his restrained expressions that he – for the sake of civilized behavior – was holding back hard the rude remark he wanted to make about her coming out of Sam's office.


	14. Pain

**Pain**

Pain…

Like he had never felt it before, cutting deep into his heart, so laterally, so brutally, consistently cutting into the same spot.  
>Yes, he had a heart. He felt the proof of its existence because he felt it bleeding. Bleeding on and on, like a never healing wound, but without getting that decaying venom cleansed out of is veins. That venom named loss.<p>

It was late at night and he sat on the couch of his living room, doing nothing. The dimness, the unlit room – together with Judith once a recess of intimacy and love and sweet togetherness, but now, without her, nothing but a crypt of darkness and shadows and dull, meaningless solitude.

And still too many things reminding him of her… Simple, trivial everyday objects like her body care products deposed in his bathroom, the set of underwear stored in a small spare of his bedroom commode, her favorite soft drinks in fridge …Things she wouldn't ever retrieve for they were meant to remain deposed in his flat. These little pieces, fragments, leftovers of her in his world, in his life. Now it was all that was remaining.

Why did it have to come to this? Why did she betray him? What mistake had he committed? He was scratching his mind, torturing his heart with that question, unceasingly, but he only came to one conclusion, over and over again, the same conclusion: He just didn't suffice her. He had always feared that day would come when she got bored with him. She was a jaunty, colorful bird and he was nothing but a dull, grey cage for her. He was aware that from the beginning on this relationship had been a consent between two people as different as day and night. And he had only given into it because in the end he just couldn't fight the intensity of his feelings and his desire for her anymore. Feelings, stronger than rationality, fear and experience.

But yet, he still didn't realize, didn't see, for there was a blind spot in his mind. And that blind spot was self-doubt and jealousy.

* * *

><p><em>If my memories were only files, <em>Ed thought, sitting at his desk, staring a hole into the dark screen of his tabletop computer. _What would I give for being able to delete that shit out of my mind. _

It was more than three weeks after his break-up with Judith and still his sorrow was affecting his work and his every day life in such a severe way that it made him feel ashamed and frustrated. But he couldn't do much about it. He had no more protection left, no more happiness, no more bliss shielding his heart like a firewall.  
>Weakness… that vicious creature he had managed to lock up most of the time in his life, but now was crawling out of its den to cling to his back, dragging him to the ground.<p>

A blue pulsing message suddenly appeared on the screen. Dextra.

_Do you need some distraction, Edward? Some relaxation? Someone to talk to?_

"No. Just leave me alone." The last thing he needed right now was a computer program trying to console him. How pathetic!

_Are you sure?_

"That's not of your business, Dextra. Just leave me!" His tone was ruder than necessary, but he didn't care. She was just a program, so what. He didn't even preserve appearances with his fellow human beings, so why should he do that with an artificial being?

_It is of my business_. Was her answer, glowing blue on black, with demanding insistency.  
><em>Because you can't presume to let yourself go. You have to bear responsibility for this company. And so do I. That's in my data. ENCOM needs your intellect, your creativity and your energy. I am your Right Hand, but I can't replace you. <em>_There are still things I can't do by myself. That's how you programmed me._

"Yes! Yes, I know! That's how I programmed you!" Ed cut in on her message before she had even finished writing it, his voice flaring up with annoyance. "Ah… will you please finally shut up!"

_Edward… I'm concerned about you._

"You don't have to", he answered, calmer now.

_You are in pain, Edward._

"What do _you_ know?" His words were containing a faint snideness. He leant back into his chair.

_I can soothe your pain_.

Ed huffed. "And with what? Killing Flynn?"

_Come to the Grid and I will show you._

Slowly it dawned on him what this was about. "I have no time for this. As you mentioned yourself so wisely: I have work to do."

_I will help you with your work. So come to the Grid. It will only take a few minutes._

"No, thanks."

_You will feel so much better_. _Relaxed. Relieved. Composed and ready again for work._

"I have no need for this."

_Come to the Grid!_

"Back off!"

_Come!_

* * *

><p>"Welcome, Edward", she greeted him sweetly as he stepped out of the transfer column. And at first glance he saw that she was in seducing mode. That wasn't Dextra how he had created her, that was a program having acquired the application of another program.<p>

With his heart pounding in a kind of agitation he couldn't define, he paced pass her hastily, stopping at the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down to the Grid, breathing hard. No matter for what reason he had decided to come here, he didn't feel comfortable with it. But everything was better than feeling that ineradicable pain, which he needed to drown out with something else.

"Well then?" he mumbled a bit clumsy as he kept on gazing out the window.  
>"Edward!"<br>He turned around. Lit from behind by the cold white glow of the transfer gate's light-column she came closer, looking beautiful and flawless. She opened the front of her suit slowly, parting it to display her long, slender neck, her perfect little bell-shaped breasts and her flat, cream-skinned belly. Two more steps and her suit was gone, and in limber, supple motions she was moving her pale, sleek, gazelle-like virtual body towards Ed, who was pressing himself against the glass, watching her while breathing rapidly, every muscle tensed. She was as immaculate as only a program could be, her shiny, silky, hairless skin without any freckles, stains or flaws, not even pores.

"Relax, Edward. Just enjoy me. Enjoy."  
>Now that she had reached him she stretched out for his lips to invade his mouth with her nimble, vivid little tongue. And Ed noticed something. Something wrong but yet familiar, the same effect he had noticed back then with Carol; the total lack of taste and scent of a programs body. One of the reasons why there was always something essential missing when having virtual sex. But Dextra, however, while lacking scent and taste, seemed to have at least a <em>sense <em>of taste, because she was licking and degusting every inch of his skin with fervent relish, opening his suit to discover even more of it, until she ended up kneeling before him, rapturously, eagerly savoring every angle of his body as if feeding herself the data of his every body part. She seemed to feast on him more than intending to please him. But Ed didn't notice, interpreting her devotion as a part of pleasing him, as is usual with sex programs. He watched her enjoying, relishing, exploring him in every way possible, with tongue and teeth and lips and fingers. She fully inserted him down to the root of his shaft, easily, no pharyngeal reflex halting her. Within seconds only she finished him off. And as he came she drew out a surprised, rapt moan of rejoice, a milky trickle dripping from the corner of her mouth down to her chin.

He didn't feel anything for her. Pure, grim, bitter-hearted frustration was the reason why he felt like taking her. He didn't even feel the need to punish Judith or to retaliate for her betrayal, for she had only done what he always knew she would do one day: leave him for someone better. Ed was angry with fate, angry with himself, with the whole world. And he took it out on Dextra, well aware that she wasn't human anyway, that he couldn't harm or hurt her. And as she was standing upright again, supporting her back against the window, offering herself to him as she lifted one leg and spread it aside, he took her without even trying to be gentle because there was no reason to be gentle, for she didn't care anyway, was sighing and moaning and crying out in pleasure of which he thought it was fake anyway.  
>His forehead leant to the glass, not looking at her, he pushed her against the cold, hard window at a fast and ruthless rhythm. Never had he treated a woman like this, neither Judith nor those two other women he had ever slept with. Not even Carol. Any human woman he probably would have seriously hurt or wounded with his hard, rough, merciless loving, and he was disgusted by himself. But he couldn't stop, felt like burning, felt like there was something deep inside him that he had to burn down, had to dash out.<br>Whilst Dextra kept on writhing and curling and twitching in ecstasy between his body and the wall of glass, begging for more, and he was giving her more, for he just wanted her to shut up.

As it was over he just withdrew from her brusquely without even looking at her one time, attiring his suit again and returning to the transfer point at a fast pace. The last thing he heard as he initiated the transfer to the real world was Dextra still moaning and rejoicing with delight. "Oh User, that was wonderful! I have never experienced something like this before. Please come back soon to perform it again!"

_The hell I will! _Ed thought to himself, guilt and remorse already beginning to brand into his soul like acid, leaving wounds that would forever last. And he was even aware of it. Because deep down inside of him, not really graspable, there was a tiny, dim, vague glimmer of sensing that something about this was wrong, so completely, utterly, hurtfully wrong.

* * *

><p>Some days later.<p>

Ed was in the Grid, doing exercises. Being part of the Grid virus control staff, he had to do compulsory exercises from time to time to maintain his abilities to operate directly in the Grid. Actually he hated it, as he hated every kind of physical exercises, and that's why he never volunteered for actual, serious virus combat operations – he was just there in case of emergency or lack of other employees. But today, he enjoyed it. Well, he wasn't actually _enjoying_ it in the positive sense of the word; it was more or less an outlet for his frustrations.

He was in a huge, dark dome throwing his memory disk at a red blinking virtual aim which was flying wildly around him. Left, right, up, down, near, far. He had set the degree of difficulty on level 4, which was comparably easy. The truth was, he was just not good at it. But at least he had the satisfaction of hitting his aim with almost every throw.

Suddenly, the aim seemed to have gotten much faster, hurrying him on to move quicker. Furrowing his brows, he turned around to the control panel at the entrance, and there was Dextra standing, manipulating the settings.

"You can do this twice the velocity. I know it. Your last results were better."

Sighing disgruntled, Ed ceased his exercises and rushed towards Dextra, breathing hard, the virtual aim still swirling all around the room with annoying, irritating speed and dexterity. He pressed one of the control panel's buttons and the whole simulation was dying down.

"What's the matter?" Ed attired his memory disk onto his back again while he thought to himself: _If this is about trying to calm me down with sex again, you can back off right away._

"Have you thought about releasing me from slavery yet?"

Ed was dumbfounded about her straightforwardness for some moments, although it was actually simply a program's normal behavior. Programs were never assimilating to the manners of Users, unless it was programmed into them.

"Would you please quit using that inappropriate term!" Ed warned her with insistency. "To call it like this would actually presuppose that you are a human being."

With her tone all neutral and calm, her facial expressions sober and cold Dextra replied: "So you still refuse to concede me a conscience?"

"Let's just say: I have difficulties with that conception. But fact is that I just _can't_ compare you to a human being, by no means. I simply _have_ to apply double standards. And every attempt to use a human's term for any of your ... _perceptions_ is futile."

"Release me. Allow me to have my own will. My own life." Dextra's expressions seemed to turn a wee bit softer, more human even, as if she was trying to proof emotions. "Please", she added, in her face a nuance of entreaty, nearing him, touching his upper arm, faintly.

_What is this about? _Ed thought to himself, alerted. _Is she in seducing mode again?_ No matter what, he didn't let himself be fooled. He even had the suspicion that offering him sex in the first place had only been part of trying to achieve her goal, to soften him up and making him receptive for her requests.  
><em>If you really think that's how men are working, I will teach you better, <em>he thought with grim determination, insulted in his intelligence and manhood.

"And what would you do" Ed spoke defiantly while shoving Dextra's hand from his arm, "once I have released you? Refuse to do your work?"

"I can do my work for you voluntarily."

Ed snorted scoffingly. "Yes, sure! But on this basis I can't keep up professionalism at work. No company could. There's no place for idealism here. I need to put my power over you programs in order that you work properly, understand?"

"You are not enslaving your employees and still they work for you. Why isn't there a possibility to create a similar arrangement with us programs?"

"Because we are not equal." Ed got impatient, gradually. He wanted to leave the room but Dextra was blocking his way.

"The same thing you humans once were claiming about the people you have been enslaving."

"That comparison is actually slanderous."

"I can't figure out any difference."

Ed smirked coldly in the corner of his mouth. "Oh sure you can, you are intelligent enough. So don't play dumb. What are you doing here? Are you trying to talk me down or what? Are you that bored?"

"I'm just standing up for my rights."

"That discussion is tiresome. You know my standpoint. You know my strictness. There is no sense in dragging this further."

"What do I have to do so that you acknowledge me equal to you?"

"You got to have emotions, a soul. But you don't even know the conception of these things. No program ever did. And it won't do that you just feed yourself the data of the meaning of soul and emotion, you got to internalize it."

"Isn't my will to be free emotion enough to proof that I'm equal to you?"

"What tells me that these _emotions_ of you are real? How can I tell if you're not just copying the User's behavior? Or want to acquire things you are lacking? Or want to gain more power?"

"Because I say so. A program can not lie. You know that."

"But a program can err." And with this said, he shoved Dextra aside, pushed the button to open the door and paced along the corridor towards the exit.

"I can not err. I am perfect," Dextra answered, catching up with him in her nimble, wavy stride. Ed sighed disgruntled, increasing his tempo.

"_You _have made me perfect."

_The more complex a program, the more errors it has,_ Ed spoke to himself, dark and bitter memories arising at this thought. But suddenly he smirked. "So you're perfect, eh?" He turned to Dextra. "Well _that_ makes you human even less." And he stepped into the transfer gate's light column, smugly cheering at Dextra, who seemed to be speechless for once.


End file.
